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DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

Domesticated Animals. The Dog, Beasts 
of Burden, the Horse and Birds. Illustrated. 
Svo 2.50 

Sea and Land. Features of Coasts and 
Oceans with especial reference to the Life 
of Man. Illustrated. Svo 2.50 

Aspects of the Earth. A Popular Account 
of Some Familiar Geological I'henomena. 
With 100 illustrations. N'e'iv and Cheaper 
Edition. Svo 2. 50 

Nature and Man in America. i2mo. 1.50 



V 




AFRICAN ELEPHANT 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



THEIR RELATION TO MAN AND TO HIS 
ADVANCEMENT IN CIVILIZATION 



BY 

NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 

DEAN OF THE LAWRENCE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



ILLUSTRATED 




^U^ 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
1895 



+-=. 






Copyright, 1895, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Press of J. J Little & Co. 
Astor Place, New York 



CONTENTS 



Introduction, 



THE DOG 

Ancestry of the Domesticated Dogs. — Early Uses of the Animal : Variations induced 
by Civilization. — Shepherd-dogs : their Peculiarities ; other Breeds. — Possible In- 
tellectual Advances. — Evils of Specialized Breeding. — Eikeness of Emotions of 
Dogs to those of Man : Comparison with other. Domesticated Animals. — Modes 
of Expression of Emotions in Dogs. — Future Development of this Species. — Com- 
parison of Dogs and Cats as regards Intelligence and Position in Relation to Man, . 



THE HORSE 

Value of the Strength of the Horse to Man. — Origin of the Horse. — Peculiar Ad- 
vantage of the Solid Hoof. — Domestication of the Horse. — How begun. — Use 
as a Pack Animal. — For War. — Peculiar Advantages of the Animal for Use of 
Men. — Mental Peculiarities. — Variability of Body. — Spontaneous Variations due 
to CHmate. — Variations of Breeds. — Effect of the Invention of Horseshoes. — 
Donkeys and Mules compared with Horse. — Especial Value of these Animals. — 
Diminishing Value of Horses in Modern Civilization. — Continued Need of their 
Service in War, ............. 57 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS : BEASTS FOR BURDEN, 
FOOD, AND RAIMENT 

Effect of this Group of Animals on Man. — First Subjugations. — Basis of Domestica- 
bility. — Horned Cattle. — Wool-bearing Animals. — Sheep and Goats. — Camels: 
their Limitation. — Elephants : Ancient History ; Distribution ; Intelligence ; Use 
in the Arts ; Need of True Domestication. — Pigs : their Peculiar Economic Value ; 
Modern Varieties ; Mental Qualities. — Relation of the Development of Domesti- 
cable Animals to the Time of Man's Appearance on the Earth, . . . 103 



viii CONTENTS 

DOMESTICATED BIRDS 

PACE 

Domestication of Animals mainly accomplished by the vVryan Race ; Small Amount of 
Such Work by American Indians. — Barnyard Fowl : Mental Qualities ; Habits of 
Combat. — Peacocks : their Limited Domestication. — Turkeys : their Origin ; tend- 
ing to revert to the Savage State.— Water F'owl : Limited Number of Species 
domesticated ; Intellectual Qualities of this Group. — The Pigeon : Origin and 
History of Group ; Marvels of Breeding. — Song Birds. — Hawks and Hawking. — 
Sympathetic Motive of Birds : their ^-Esthetic Sense ; their Capacity for Enjoy- 
ment, ............... 152 



USEFUL INSECTS 

Relations of Men to Insect World. — But Lew Species Useful to Man. — I>ittle Trace 
of Domestication. — Honey-bees : their Origin ; Reasons for no Selective Work ; 
Habits of the Species. — Silkworms : Singular Importance to Man. — Intelligence 
of Species. — Cochineal Insect. — Spanish Flies. — Future of Man relative to Use- 
ful Insects, .............. 190 



THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 

Recent Understanding as to the Rights of Animals ; Nature of these Rights ; their 
Origin in Sympathy. — Early State of Sympathetic Emotions. — Place of Statutes 
concerning Animal Rights. — Present and Future of Animal Rights. — Question of 
Vivisection. — Rights of Domesticated Animals to Proper Care ; to Enjoyment. — 
Ends of the Breeder's Art. — Moral Position of the Hunter. — Probable Develop- 
ment of the Protecting Motive as applied to Animals, 204. 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 

The Conditions of Domestication ; Effects on Society ; Share of the Races of Men in 
the Work. — Evils of Non-Intercourse with Domesticated Animals as in Cities ; 
Remedies. — Scientific Position of Domestication ; Future of the Art. — List of 
Species which may Advantageously be Domesticated. — Peculiar Value of the Birds 
and Mammals. — Importance of Groups which tenant High Latitudes. — Plan for 
W'ilderness Reservations ; Relation to National Parks. — Project for International 
System of Reservations. — Nature of Organic Provinces ; Harm done to them by 
Civilized Men. — Way in which Reservations would Serve to Maintain Types of 
the Life of the Earth ; how they may be Founded. — Summary and Conclusions, . 218 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



African Elephant, . , . Frontispiece 

Sheep-dogs Guarding a Flock at Night lo 

Hounds Running a Wild Boar, 53 

On Rotten Row, Hyde Park, London, 63 

Cavalry Horse, 71 

A Hurdle Jumper, 79 

English Polo Ponies, 89 

Winnowing Grain in Egypt, in 

The Halt in the Desert at Night — The Story Teller, . . .121 

Carrying the Sugar Cane in Harvest — Egypt, . . . . 125 

Feeding Silkworms with Mulberry Leaves in Japan, . . . 193 

The Farmer's Apiary, 199 

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 

Greyhound after "the Kill," 13 

St. Bernard 15 

Spaniel Retrieving Wild Duck, ..,0 .... 17 

Bull-Dog . . . ■ . 22 

Fox-Hound and Pups, ........... 25 



X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



Pointer Retrieving a Fallen Bird, ....... 26 

Pointer and Setter, Flushing Game 27 

Dutch Dogs Used in Harness, 30 

King Charles Spaniel, ZZ 

The Pounce of a Terrier, 35 

Pomeranian or " Spitz," 38 

Poodles 39 

Collie, 4i 

A Hunter, 60 

Horse of a Bulgarian Marauder 67 

Mare and Foal, 68 

Plough Horses, France, . . • IZ 

Belgian Fisherman's Horse 76 

Horses for Towing on the Beach in Holland, 78 

Exercising the Thoroughbreds, 84 

An Arabian Horse 85 

Arabian Sports, 86 

Syrian Horse, 92 

In the Circus, 96 

Domesticated Buffaloes in Egypt 104 

Cattle of India, . . • 105 

Indian Bullock and Water-Carrier, 108 

Ploughing in Syria 109 

Egyptian Sheep 114 

Bedouin Goat-Herd — Palestine 116 

The Great Caravan Road — Central Asia, 119 

Camels Feeding, 123 

Camels along the Sea at Twilight, 127 

An Indian Elephant, 134 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xi 



PAGE 



The Original Jungle Fowl {Gallus bankiva) and Some of his Do- 
mestic Descendants 153 

HouDiN, Cochins, Leghorns, and Game 158 

Bantams, Brahma, and Dorkings, 160 

Contributions from Asia, Africa, and America — Peacocks, Guinea- 
fowl, and Turkey 163 

The Domesticated Turkey, 165 

The Largest of all Poultry — The Ostrich 168 

An Eider Colony 170 

Terns Aiding a Wounded Comrade 171 

SOxME Recent Additions to the Poultry Yard, 173 

Swans i74 

The Original Wild Rock Dove ( Columba livia ) and Some of its 

Domestic Descendants, 173 

Turtle Doves 177 

The Giant Crowned Pigeon of India, 178 

The English Pheasant 181 

The Falconer's Favorite— Peregrine Falcon, 184 

The Bandit's Brood, 186 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



INTRODUCTION 

One of the effects of the modern advance in natural 
science has been greatly to increase the attention which is 
devoted to the influences that the conditions of diverse 
peoples have had upon their development. Man is no longer 
looked upon, as he was of old, as a being which had been 
imposed upon the earth in a sudden and arbitrary manner, 
set to rule the world into which he had been sent as a 
master. We now see him as one of the myriad species which 
has won its way by powers of mind out of darkness and the 
great struggle to the place of command. The way in which 
this creature, weak in body and exceedingly dependent on 
his surroundings, has in the modern geologic epoch come 
forth from the mass of the lower animals, is by far the most 
impressive and as yet the most unexplained phenomenon 
which the geologist has to consider. It is not likely that the 
marvellous advancement can be accounted for by any single 
cause ; it is probably due, as are most of the great evolutions, 
to the concurrence of many influences ; but among these 
which make for advance, we clearly have to reckon the 
animals and plants which man has learned to associate with 
his work of the household and the fields. 

Although certain species of insects, particularly the ants, 
have the well-developed habit of subjugating certain creat- 



2 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

ures of their own family, man is the only vertebrate that 
has ever adopted the plan of domesticating a variety of 
animals and plants. The beginnings of this custom were 
made in a very remote time, and for long ages the profit 
which was thereby gained appears to have been but slight. 
Gradually, however, races, owing to their masterful quality 
and to the opportunities which were offered by the wild 
life about their dwelling places, obtained flocks and herds. 
In the group of continents commonly termed the old world, 
where there were several ancient primitive peoples of in- 
nate ability, and where there were many species of larger 
mammals which were well fitted for domestication, the 
advance in social development went on rapidly. In the new 
world, though the primitive races contained tribes of much 
ability, there was practically no chance for the people to add 
to their strength by the subjugation of beasts of burden, or 
to their food resources by the adoption of various animals 
which could be used for the needs of food or raiment. The 
advance of men when they have obtained valuable domes- 
ticated animals, and their failure to win a high station where 
the surrounding nature denied such opportunities, go far to 
prove the bearing of this accomplishment in the development 
of peoples. 

A little consideration makes It evident to us that the 
advance of mankind above the original savage state is in 
several ways favored by the possession of domesticated ani- 
mals. In the first place, each creature which is adopted into 
the household or the fields usually brings as its tribute a sub- 
stantial contribution to the resources which tend to make 
the society commercially successful. When we consider the 
enlargements of resources and the diversification of indus- 



IN TROD UCTION 3 

tries which rest upon the adoption of any one of these 
animals — as, for instance, the horse — we see in a way what the 
possession of domesticated animals and plants really means, 
and are in a position to conceive, though at best but dimly, 
what the scores of these captive species have done for us. 
We recognize the fact that while, under almost any condi- 
tions, a certain manner of advance above the most primitive 
savagery is possible to a naturally able people, this on-going 
cannot lead any distance unless the folk have other help 
than their own weak bodies can give them. It is hardly too 
much to say that civilization has intimately depended on the 
subjugation of a great range of useful species. 

It would be interesting to trace, if we could, what share 
the several domesticated animals have had in the develop- 
ment of the human races ; but this task is not to be done. 
We can, however, discern that the Arab without the camel 
and the horse would not have found the place in history 
which he has filled, and that our own race could not have 
attained its place save for the aid which the horned cattle, 
sheep, and a host of other helpers which we have pressed 
into service, have afforded. These economic gains have to 
be judged in mass, they cannot be reckoned in detail. When 
we have made the best account of them we can, there 
remains another class of influences, the value of which, 
though evidently great, is yet harder to reckon ; these arise 
from the education which has been attained through the care 
of these adopted creatures. Among savages the great need 
is a training in forethoughtfulness ; all primitive peoples are 
like children, they live in the interests of the day ; the cares 
of the seasons to come, or even of the morrow, are not for 
them. The possession of domesticated animals certainly did 



4 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

much to break up this old brutal way of life ; it led to a 
hioher sense of responsibility to the care of the household ; 
it brought about systematic agriculture ; it developed the art 
of war ; it laid the foundations of wealth and commerce, and 
so set men well upon their upward way. Moreover, the use 
of domesticated animals of the better sort enabled the more 
vio-orous and care-taking races to gain the strength which led 
to their advancement in power to a point where they were 
able to displace the lower and feebler tribes. In other words, 
the system of domestication has provided a method by which 
those peoples who were fitted to develop the qualities which 
make for civilization could advance ; it has provided the 
opportunity for selection. 

Of all the influences which have been exercised on man 
by the care of his flocks, herds, and droves, perhaps the most 
important is that which has arisen from the broader develop- 
ment of his sympathies. The savage may be defined as a 
man who cares only for his family and his tribe ; the civilized 
man as one whose kindly interest extends to mankind and 
beyond to all sentient beings. In the development of this 
altruistic motive the care of the dependent species has 
evidently been most effective. We note that the peoples 
who have attained the first upward step in the association 
with domesticated animals are in their quality, so far as 
tested by literature and history, much above the mere sav- 
age. With the care of the flocks we find associated poetry, 
the first notes of higher religious motives, and a largeness 
of the sympathetic life which is favored by the nature of 
the occupation. Where the nomadic habits of the original 
shepherds pass into the more sedentary state of the soil 
tiller, the element of personal care and the affection and 



INTRODUCTION 5 

the consequent education of the sympathy were increased. 
Men had now to care for half a dozen or more kinds of 
animals ; they had to learn their ways, in a manner to put 
themselves in their places and conceive their needs. Thus 
the life of a farmer is a continual lesson in the art of sym- 
pathy ; with the result, certainly in part due to this cause, 
that there is no class of people from whom the brutal in- 
stincts of the ancient savage life which we all inherit have 
been so completely eradicated. 

It is perhaps too much to attribute the advance of the 
agricultural classes of our civilized peoples, in all that serves 
to remove them from the brutality of their savage ancestors, 
altogether to the nature of their work — to the very large 
element of kindly care for which it calls, and which is the 
price of success in the occupation. Yet when we note the 
immediate way in which the people bred in cities, under 
circumstances of excitement are wont to behave like savages 
of the lower kind, showing in their conduct a lack of all 
sympathetic education, and contrast their behavior with that 
of their kinsmen from the fields — we see essential differences 
in character which cannot well be explained save by the 
diverse natures of the traininof which the men have received. 
Thus in the French Revolution, the baser, more inhuman 
deeds were not committed by the peasants, who had been 
the principal sufferers under the regime which was over- 
thrown, but by the people of the great towns who had been 
less oppressed by the iniquities of the old system of gov- 
ernment. 

If it be true — as my personal experiences and observations 
lead me firmly to believe is the case — that man's contact with 
the domesticated animals has been and is ever to be one of 



6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

the most effective means whereby his sympathetic, his civil- 
ized motives may be broadened and affirmed, there is clearly 
reason for giving to this side of life a larger share of atten- 
tion than it has received. So far the presence of these lower 
creatures in our society has generally been accepted as a 
matter of course. Sentimentalists, after the fashion of Lau- 
rence Sterne, have dwelt upon the imaginary woes of the 
creatures. Associations of well-meaning people have en- 
deavored to diminish the cruelty which people of the towns, 
rarely those bred on the soil, often inflict upon them. It 
seems, however, desirable that we should place this con- 
sideration upon a plane more fitting the knowledge of our 
time. It should be made plain, not only that the success of 
our civilization depends now as in the past on the coopera- 
tion which mankind has had from the domesticated animals, 
but also that the development of this relation is one of the 
most interesting features in all history. On through the 
ages of the geologic past comes this great procession of 
life, in the endless succession of species whose numbers in 
the aggregate are to be reckoned by the scores, if not by 
the hundreds of millions. Until this modern acje, the throno- 
goes forward blindly, groping its way towards the higher 
planes of life. At length certain of the more advanced 
forms attain to a measure of intellectual elevation. Still, 
for all this advance, the life is not organized so as to attain 
any large ends ; no society arises from it. 

Suddenly, in the last geological epoch, man, the descend- 
ant of a group which like all others had led the narrow life 
of the preparatory ages, appears upon the scene. At first, 
and in his lower human estate, his position was not notice- 
ably higher than that of his kindred, but there was in him 



INTRODUCTION 7 

the seed of a great unlikeness, of very new things, in that his 
desires had an element of the unlimited which was to grow 
apace, and in time to make him greedy of on-going. As this 
innovating creature sought for agents of power in the wilder- 
ness about him, he blindly laid hands upon such of the fellow 
tenants of the wilds as might serve his immediate needs. 
This species, both animals and plants, endowed with the 
capacity for variation, the plasticity which is in general a 
characteristic of all organic forms, were early led by their 
new master, as of old they had been guided by the old 
organic laws. They changed according to his choice, aban- 
doning their ancient ways for the novel paths of civilization. 
With this association of the hiorher forms of the earth under 
the leadership of man, there began an entirely new and 
unprecedented condition of the world's affairs. In place of 
the ancient law of nature there came the control of our spe- 
cies which had been, in a way, chosen to be the overlord of 
life. 

At first, the number of species of animals and plants which 
man brought under his control was very limited ; it was 
indeed confined to those which might readily be subjugated 
to meet immediate needs. Gradually, however, the list has 
been extended until it included thousands of forms, which, 
while they meet no need such as the savage recognizes, are 
gratifying to the taste or the ambitions of civilized peoples. 
These aesthetic devices, or those of necessity, are advancing 
so rapidly that each generation sees hundreds of new animal 
and plant species added to our living collections, so that our 
plant and animal gardens now contain a large share of the 
more attractive forms which are to be found in the various 
geographical realms. Our tilled fields yield perhaps a 



8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

hundred times as many varieties of plants as they did in the 
earliest historic agriculture. The advance in the process of 
domestication is not so rapid as regards the animal kingdom 
as it is with the realm of plants, and this mainly for the reason 
that animals have a will of their own which has to be bent or 
broken to that of man. Still it goes on apace. We of to-day 
have at our command many times the number of sentient spe- 
cies contributive to our pleasure or profit that had been made 
captive at the beginning of our era. Naturally, in the early 
days of domestication, men brought under their control the 
greater number of the animals which gave promise of utility. 
As no new species of any economic importance have been 
created within the last geologic period, the field for the exten- 
sion of economic domestication has of late been very limited. 
But the realm of sympathetic appreciation, unlike the econo- 
mic, knows no definite bounds, and promises in time to bring 
all the more important organic forms under the care of the 
sympathetic and masterful being who has been chosen as 
the ruler of terrestrial life. 

We thus see that the matter of domesticated animals is 
but a part of the larger problem which includes all that 
relates to man's destined mastery of the earth — a mastery 
which he is rapidly winning. It means that, in time, a large 
part of the life of this sphere is to be committed to his care, 
to survive or perish as he wills, to change at his bidding, to 
give, as other subjugated kinds have done, whatever of profit 
or pleasure they may contribute to his endless advancement. 
From this point of view our domesticated creatures should be 
presented to our people, with the purpose in mind of bring- 
ing them to see that the process of domestication has a far- 
reaching aspect, a dignity, we may fairly say a grandeur, that 



INTRODUCTION 9 

few human actions possess. If we can impress this view, it 
will be certain to awaken men to a larger sense of their 
responsibility for, and their duty by, the creatures which we 
have taken from their olden natural state into the social 
order. It will, at the same time, enlarge our conceptions of 
our own place in the order of this world. 

In the following pages little effort has been made to pre- 
sent those facts concerning domesticated animals which would 
commonly be reckoned as scientific. The several essays 
which, in larger part, were separately printed in Scribner's 
Magazine, are intended for those persons who, while they 
may not care to approach the matter in the manner of the 
professional inquirer, are glad to have the results which 
naturalists have attained, so far as they may serve to extend 
knowledge of things which lie in the field of familiar experi- 
ences. To the text as it at first appeared, numerous additions 
have been made, and the concluding chapters, on the Rights 
of Animals, and on the Problem of Domestication, are new. 
In them an effort is made to direct attention to the import- 
ance of the problem of man's relation to the lower life which 
is about him, and which in the future far more than in the 
past is to be helped or hindered by his rule. Our life is 
made up of large problems ; but there seem few that are 
greater than this, which concerns our duty by the creatures 
that share with us the blessinors of existence, and over which 
we have come to rule. 




***,{' 






THE DOG 

Ancestry of the Domesticated Dogs. — Early Uses of the Animal : Variations induced by 
Civilization. — Shepherd-dogs : their Peculiarities ; other Breeds. — Possible Intellectual 
Advances. — Evils of Specialized Breeding. — Likeness of Emotions of Dogs to those of 
Man : Comparison with other Domesticated Animals. — Modes of Expression of Emo- 
tions in Dogs. — Future Development of this Species. — Comparison of Dogs and Cats as 
regards Intelligence and Position in Relation to Man. 

It is an interestinof fact that the first creature which man 
won to domesticity was made captive and friend for the sake 
of companionship rather than for any grosser profit. The 
dog was, the world over, the first Hving possession of man 
beyond the hmits of his own kindred. He has been so long 
separated from the primitive species whence he sprang that 
we cannot trace with any certainty his kinship with the creat- 
ures of the wilderness. Like his master he has become so 
artificialized that it is hard to conjecture what his original 
state may have been. 

Naturalists are much divided in opinion in all that relates 
to the origin of our ancient and common domesticated 
animals ; and this for the reason that the longer a creature 
has been subjected to the change-bringing conditions of our 
fields and households, the further it has departed from the 
parent stock. This difftculty is naturally the greatest in the 
case of the dogs, for the reason that they have been longer 
and more completely under the control of man than any 
other of the lower animals. Some students of the problem 
have inclined to the opinion that the dog is a descendant 



12 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

of the wolf ; the whelps of this species, it is supposed, were 
captured by primitive men and brought under domes- 
tication. Savages, like children, are much given to bringing 
the young of wild animals to their homes ; if the condi- 
tions are favorable they will care for these captives, even 
if the charge upon their resources is tolerably heavy. 
With most primitive people, however, life is so vagari- 
ous and starvation so recurrent that they are not apt to 
retain their pets long enough to establish domesticated 
forms. Thus, among our American Indians, though they 
show fondness for wild creatures as much as any other 
people, no species save the dog ever became permanently 
associated with their tribe. It is, however, possible, that 
in some sedentary group of savages the work of domesti- 
cating the ancestors of the dog, even if they were wolf-like, 
was accomplished. 

The difficulty of this view is that even with the high 
measure of care which the conditions of civilization permit 
us to devote to the effort, it has been found impossible to 
educate captive wolves to the point where they show any 
affection for their masters, or are in the least degree useful 
in the arts of the household or the occupations of the 
chase. They are, in fact, indomitably fierce and utterly 
self-regarding. It seems unreasonable to believe that any 
savage would have found either pleasure or profit from 
an effort to tame any of the known species of wolves. 
Moreover, the fact that dogs show little or no tendency to 
revert to the form and habits of their brutal kindred, or 
to interbreed with them, is clearly against the supposition 
that there is any close relation between the creatures. 

Yet other speculative inquirers have sought the origin of 



THE DOG 



n 



the dog through the admixture of the blood of several differ- 
ent species, the wolf and the jackal being, perhaps, the prin- 
cipal or the only components of the hybrid stock. Here, too, 
the evidence of nature is against the supposition. No one 
has ever succeeded in hybridizing the wolf and the jackal, 
nor do our dogs show any more tendency to revert to the 
jackal than to the wolf. They meet their tropical relative 




Greyhound after "the Kill" 

with as much animosity as is proper, or at least customary, 
in the intercourse of allied yet distinct species. In fact, 
all the indices by which we are able to carry back the 
history of other domesticated animals to their primitive or 
even extinct ancestry, fail in the case of the dog. When 
the stock is allowed to go as nearly wild as they can 
be induced to become, we do not find that they thereby 
approach to any known wild form. It therefore seems 



14 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

reasonable to betake ourselves to another basis for the 
natural history of the dog, which has not yet been made 
a matter of much inquiry, but which promises to afford us 
more substantial truth than the conjectures which we have 
just considered. 

We should, in the first place, note the fact that the ances- 
tors of our more important domesticated animals, those which 
have been longest in subjugation, have commonly disappeared 
from the wild state — the species, except for the cultivated 
forms, having gone into the irrecoverable past. This is the 
case with the wild kindred of our bulls, horses, sheep, and 
camels, there probably being none of the original wild species 
of these groups now living, except those which have been 
more or less completely subjugated by man, and then have 
returned to the wilderness. The fact is, that with any large 
mammal the domestication of the species tends to bring 
about the destruction of the remaining wild forms. If we 
go back in fancy to the time when the dog was taken 
in from the wilderness, we readily perceive how certainly 
the subjugated individuals would have mingled with their 
wild kindred, so that either the wild would have become 
tame or vice versa. The same incompatibility which exists 
between slavery and freedom in our own species in any 
o-iven territory may be said to hold in the case of captive 
animals. It is particularly on this account that I am dis- 
posed to think that our races of dogs have been derived 
from one or more original species of truly canine ancestors, 
the wild forms of which have long since disappeared from 
the earth. 

Although there are no species of wild dogs now in exist- 
ence to which we can refer the oriorin of our household friends, 



THE DOG 



15 



there are several known to us only in their fossil state, from 
which they may possibly — indeed, we may say probably — 
have been derived. These creatures are, of course, repre- 
sented only by their skeletons, and even these remains have 
only been found in an imperfect state of preservation. It is 
evident, however, that these extinct species, or at least cer- 
tain of them, lived down to the time when man had come 




upon the earth, and was beginning to speculate on his sur- 
roundings for such company and help as he might win 
therefrom. It may interest the reader to know that a spe- 
cies of American dog existed in the Southern Appalachians 
down to a very recent time — recent, at least, in a geo- 
logical sense. The remains of one of these animals were 
found by the writer in a cave in East Tennessee, near 
Cumberland Gap. From the fragments of the skeleton, 
Mr. J. A. Allen has described the species. The animal 



1 6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

appears to have been of moderate size, and, from the posi- 
tion of the bones, it seems tolerably certain that it lived 
but a few centuries ago. 

It is clearly a reasonable supposition that some of these 
primitive canine species may have been far more domestic- 
able than the existing kindred of the dog — the wolves, foxes, 
jackals, or hyenas — differing from their fiercer kindred much 
as the zebras do from the wild asses, the one form being 
utterly undomesticable, and the other lending its back almost 
willingly to the burdens which man chooses to impose. It 
seems likely that this primitive species — perhaps more than 
one — whence the dog sprang was not a very vigorous or 
widespread form ; else, as before remarked, a savage would 
have found it impossible to keep his half-tamed creatures 
from rejoining their wild kinsmen. Thus, if a man should in 
this day succeed in taming wolves, in a region where they 
were plenty, to the point where they began to abide his 
presence, or even to have some slight affection for him, the 
call of nature would be likely to lead them back to reunion 
with their kind. 

It seems pretty certain that the first steps in the domestica- 
tion of the dog must be attributed not to any distinct purpose 
of acquiring a useful companion, but to that vague instinct 
which leads children to make captives of any wild animals with 
which they come in contact. The fancy for pets is not only 
common to all mankind, civilized and savage alike, but is 
clearly exhibited in many of the mammals below the level of 
man. Almost every one has observed cases where dogs, cats, 
and horses have become attached to some creature of an 
alien species with which they have been by chance thrown 
in contact. The higher the grade of the intelligence, the 



THE DOG 



17 



more sympathetic with other Hfe the animal is Hkely to 
become. Thus the elephants, whose natural endowments in 
the way of intelligence are perhaps superior to those of any 
other wild creatures, are, when brought into captivity, curi- 
ously prone to form attachments to human beings. Savages 
appear to make but little use of their dogs in hunting. In 
fact, those peculiar combinations of instinct and training 




Spaniel Retrieving Wild Duck 

which we find in our hounds, pointers, setters, and other dogs 
which have been bred to serve the purposes of sportsmen, 
have been acquired but slowly, and are of no value except 
where the search for game is carried on under what we may 
term civilized conditions. The dog of the savage is in all 
countries much like his master — a creature with few arts and 
unaccustomed to subdue his rude native impulses. 

It seems most likely that for ages the principal use of the 



1 8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

dog which dwelt about the camps of the primitive people was 
found in the reserve food supply which they afforded their 
thriftless masters. When the hunting was successful the 
poor brutes had a chance to wax fat, and even in times of 
scarcity they managed to pick up enough food to keep them 
alive. When their masters were brought to a state of famine 
they were doubtless accustomed, as are many savages at the 
present time, to eat a portion of their pack. In the early con- 
ditions of humanity there was no other beast which could be 
made to serve so well this simple need in the way of proven- 
der. The dog is, in fact, the only animal ever domesticated 
which can be trusted througrh his own affections alone to 
abide with his master in the endless changes of camp and the 
rapid movements of flight and chase which characterized men 
before their housed state began. In a certain curious way 
the use of dogs for food has served greatly to advance the 
development of these captives. When the savage was driven 
to feed upon his dogs he was naturally more willing to sacri- 
fice the least intelligent and affectionate of them, delaying, to 
the point of extremity, the time when he would kill those 
which had endeared themselves to him. In this way for ages 
a careful though unintended process of selection was applied 
to these creatures, and to it we may fairly attribute, as many 
considerate naturalists have done, a large part of the intellect- 
ual — indeed, we may say moral — elevation to which they have 
attained. 

When the place of the dog as the first and most intimate 
companion of man was affirmed in the rude way above 
described — when the savager)^ to which he was at first made 
free gradually enlarged to civilization, a number of special 
uses were found for the peculiar capacities of the creature. 



THE DOG 19 

These varied in the different parts of the world, according to 
the pecuHarities in the conditions of the masters. In high 
latitudes, where the ground is snow-covered during the 
winter season, dogs were used, as they are to this day, in 
dragging sleds. They were, indeed, perhaps the first animals 
which were harnessed to vehicles. When they were brought 
to serve this definite end, we may well believe that the 
stronger and more enduring individuals were spared in times 
of dearth for the reason that they were almost indispensable 
to their masters, and even the little forethought which we 
find among primitive peoples would lead to their preserva- 
tion. Here again, doubtless, came in the process of unin- 
tended selection which has made the Esquimau sled-dog one 
of the most remarkable varieties of his kind. 

Perhaps the most interesting of the early variations 
induced among dogs is that which has arisen from the pas- 
toral habit. We do not know when this custom of keeping 
sheep in large flocks was first instituted, but it is evidently of 
exceeding antiquity, probably far older than the pyramids of 
Egypt. The custom could hardly have been instituted with- 
out help of the shepherd's mate, the sheep-dog. Although 
the creatures of this breed are probably in form very near to 
the original wild species whence our canines came, the 
variety has as regards its instincts been, by a process of 
education and selection, led very far away from the original 
stock. 

The wild forefathers of this species were clearly natural 
born sheep-slayers, and the motive abides to this day in all 
the breeds which have the strength to assail our unresisting 
flocks. The spirit is so ingrained that even the most civilized 
of our house-dogs, which may for generations never have 



20 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

tasted blood and which show no disposition to attack the 
other animals of the barn-yard, cannot be trusted alone with 
sheep. When two or more of them are together the old 
instincts of the wild pack return, and they will slay with 
insensate brutality until they are fairly exhausted with their 
fury. Their behavior on such occasions reminds one of the 
actions of their masters when possessed with the blind rage 
of a mob. Yet in the shepherd-dog we find this ancestral 
motive, once a large part of the life of the creature, so over- 
come by education and selection that they will not only care 
for a flock with all the devotion which self-interest can lead 
the master to give to the task, but they will cheerfully 
undergo almost any measure of privation in order to protect 
their charges from harm. The annals of shepherd districts, 
especially those where winter snows fall deeply, as in Scot- 
land, abound in anecdotes of a well-attested nature which 
show how profoundly the dogs which tend the flocks are 
imbued with the love of the animals committed to their care. 
This affection is more curious for the reason that it is never 
in any measure returned by the sheep. To them the cus- 
todian is ever a dreaded overseer. He seems to bring to 
them nothing but the memories of danger derived from the 
experience which their species acquired in far-away times. 

It is very interesting to note the behavior of a young 
shepherd-dog when he is first brought in contact with a flock. 
It is easy to see that he has an amazingly keen interest in 
the sheep. He regards them with an attention which he 
gives to no other living things, except perhaps his master. 
Out of a litter of well-bred pups belonging to this variety, 
the greater part will at once assume a curatorial attitude 
toward a flock. They will show a disposition to keep them 



THE DOG 2 1 

together, and will seize on an individual only in case he 
undertakes to break away. They will generally use no more 
force than is necessary to reduce the recalcitrant to order. 
They arrest him by catching hold of the leg or Heece, and 
rarely seize hold of the throat, which other dogs, led by their 
inherited instincts, are apt at once to assail. Very rarely 
does a shepherd-dog of good ancestry, even at the outset of 
his career, attack a sheep in a way which shows that the 
ancient proclivities have been revived in his spirit. Even 
then a little remonstrance, or at most a sliorht castieation, is 
pretty sure to turn him from his evil ways. If we could 
measure in some visible manner the psychic peculiarities of 
animals, we would be led to reofard this crreat chano-e in the 
instincts of the dog, which has been brought about by his use 
in herding, as perhaps the most momentous transformation 
which man has ever accomplished in any creature, including 
himself ; for none of our own inherited savage traits are so 
completely sublated at the time of our birth as is this old 
and sometime dominant slaying motive in the shepherd-doo". 

With the advancing differentiation of human occupations 
and amusements, our breeds of dogs have, by more or less 
deliberate selection, been developed until by form and 
instincts they fit a great variety of purposes. Some of these 
pertain to industrial work, but the greater portion are related 
to the sports or fancies of men. The turnspit was bred for 
its short legs and small, compact body, and was serviceable 
in those treadmills of the hearth which have long since 
passed out of use, but which were for centuries features in 
our kitchens. 

The massive type of bull-dogs, characterized by heavy 
frames and an indomitable will, appears to have been brought 



22 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

about by a process of selection having for its unconscious end 
the development of a breed which should render the herds- 
man of horned cattle something like the assistance which 
the shepherd-dog gave to those who had charge of flocks. 
In the more primitive state of our bulls and cows the creat- 
ures were much wilder than at present, and were generally- 
kept, not in enclosed pastures, but on unfenced ranges. In 



Bull-Dog 

these conditions the care taken needed the help which the 
ancestors of our modern bull-door afforded. The tasks which 
the animal was called on to perform were of a ruder nature 
than those which were allotted to the shepherd-dog. Their 
business was to conquer the unruly beast. They were taught 
to seize the muzzle, and by the pain they thus inflicted they 
could subdue even the fiercer small bulls of the ancient type 
of form. From this original use the cattle-dogs were turned 
to the brutal sport of bull-baiting, a rude diversion which was 
indulged in by our ancestors for centuries, and has only dis- 



THE DOG 23 

appeared in our less cruel modern days. Bred for the bull- 
ring, these dogs acquired the formidable strength and ferocity 
under excitement which made their name a terror and their 
qualities a satirical embodiment of the ruder traits which 
characterized the British folk. 

The traininof which instituted the breed of bull-doQfs was 
evidently much less continuous and effective than that which 
■developed the shepherding variety. The use for the creature 
in the care of herds has passed away. In the older parts of 
the world cattle are kept only in enclosures ; and where, as on 
our frontier, they still range over unbounded fields, they are 
guarded by horsemen who do not need the assistance of dogs 
to control the movements of the herds. No longer service- 
able either in economies or sports, the breed of true bull-dogs 
is rapidly disappearing. As we may often observe in other 
fields of development, the peculiarities of this breed are now 
under the control of fancy, and the blood is being led far 
away from its old characteristics. The bull-terrier and other 
varieties, which retain something of the form and of the 
solemn demeanor which characterized their ancestors, but 
which are too small to assail horned cattle, mark the van- 
ishing stages of this great stock, which will soon be known 
only in memory. The history of this peculiar herd-dog 
shows us how marvellously pliant the body and mind of this 
species has become under the conditions of civilization. The 
rude process of unconscious selection, acting without stead- 
fastness of purpose or rationally developed skill, serves to 
sway the qualities of the animal this way or that to meet 
the ever-changing requirements of use or fancy. A similar 
selection in the case of our horned cattle has within a few 
■centuries converted the cows into mild-mannered and 



24 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

sedentary milk-making machines, and has deprived the bulls 

of the greater part of their ancient savage humor. Owing to 

this change in the quality of their associates in captivity the 

dogs have also been led into crreat variations. The same 
fc> »5 

type of interaction may be traced again and again in the 
isolated part of the world enclosed within our fences, as well 
as in the free realm of the wildernesses. All the individuals 
in the great host of life affect each other as do the soldiers 
of a well-organized army in the movements of a battle. 

The shepherd-dog, the turnspit, and the bull-dog are the 
three remarkable variations of the canine blood which were 
brought about by a process of training and selection uncon- 
sciously directed to the institution of breeds suite.d to special 
economic ends. The other varieties of dogs have been 
shaped more distinctly for purposes of amusement or for the 
indulgence of mere fancy. The several varieties of hounds, 
harriers, beagles, pointers, setters, terriers, etc., have been 
designed to meet a dozen or more variations in the con- 
ditions of the chase. The marvellously complete way in 
which special peculiarities have been developed in mind and 
body makes this field of domestic culture the most fascinating 
subject of inquiry to the naturalist. The ordinary fox-hound 
has had his inheritances determined so as to fit him for pur- 
suing a small animal which can rarely be kept in view during 
its flight, and which can only be followed by the odor it 
leaves in its trail, so these creatures run almost altogether 
under guidance of their sense of smell. The stag-hound, on 
the other hand, pursues a relatively large animal which can- 
not well be followed by the nose, at least with any speed ; 
they therefore trust almost altogether to vision in their chase. 
The packs which hunt otters have developed the swimming 



THE DOG 



25 



habit and an array of instincts which fit them especially for 
this pecuHar sport. If space allowed we could note at least a 
dozen divisions of the group of hounds or chasing dogs, each 
of which has developed a peculiar assemblage of qualities, 
more or less precisely adapted to some particular game. 

Perhaps the most special adaption which man has brought 
about in his domesticated animals is found in our pointers 




Fox-Hound and Pups 

and setters. In these groups the dogs have been taught, in 
somewhat diverse ways, to indicate the presence of birds to 
the orunner. Although the modes of action of these two 
breeds are closely related, the)' are sufhcientK* distinct to 
meet certain differences of circumstances. The peculiarities 
•of their actions, it should be noted, are altogether related to 
the qualities of our fowling-pieces. These have been in use, 
at least in the form where shot took the place of the single 
ball, for less than two centuries, and the peculiar training of 



26 



DOMESTICA TED ANIMALS 



our pointers and setters has been brought about in even less 
time. It seems Hkely, indeed, that it is the result of about 
a hundred and fifty years of teaching-, combined with the 
selection which so effectively works upon all our domes- 
ticated creatures. It thus appears that this peculiar impress 




Mv'ftiiVmA*vw '*^ 



Pointer Retrieving a Fallen Bird 



upon the habits of the hunting-dog is the result of some- 
where near thirty generations of culture. 

Although, as has been often suggested, the pointing or 
setting habit probably rests upon an original custom of paus- 
ing for a moment before leaping upon their prey, which was 
possibly characteristic of the wild dog, it seems to me un- 
likely that this is the case, for we do not find this habit of 
creeping on the prey among our more primitive forms of dogs 
nor the wild allied species as a marked feature. All the 



THE DOG 27 

canine animals trust rather to furious chase than to the cau- 
tious form of assault by stealthy approach and a final spring 
upon their prey, as is the habit with the cat tribe. Granting 
this somewhat doubtful claim that the induced habits of these 
dogs which have been specially adapted to the fowling-piece 
rest upon an original and native instinct, the amount of spe- 




Pointer and Setter, Flushing Game 

cialization which has been attained in about thirty genera- 
tions of care remains a very surprising feature, and affords 
one of the most instructive lessons as to the possibilities of 
animal culture. 

It is an interesting fact that the variation of a spontaneous 
sort, which is now taking place in our pointers and setters, is 
considerable. It is, perhaps, more distinctly indicated here 
than in any other of the breeds which are characterized by 
peculiar qualities of mind. All those familiar with the behav- 



28 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

ior of these strains of dogs have observed the high measure 
of individuality which characterizes them. I have recently 
been informed by a friend, who is a hunter and a very observ- 
ing naturalist, of one of these variations in the pointer's 
instinct, which may, by careful selection, possibly lead to a 
very useful change in the habits of the animal. Hunting the 
Virginia partridge in the tall grass on the sea-coast of Geor- 
gia, his dog found by experience that his master could not 
discern him when he was pointing birds, and that a yelp of 
impatience would put up the covey before the gun was ready 
for them. The sagacious dog, therefore, adopted the habit 
of backing away from the point where he first fixed him- 
self, so that he, by barking, denoted the presence of the 
birds without giving them alarm. Although, in this first 
instance, the action is purely rational, and is indeed good evi- 
dence of singular discernment and contrivinor skill, it seems 
likely that by careful breeding it may be brought into the 
realm of pure instinct or inherited habit. 

The great variation in habits which is taking place in those 
varieties of dogs which are immediately under the master's 
eye during all the process of the chase, is easily explained by 
the fact that these creatures are in a position to be immedi- 
ately and constantly influenced during their most active, and 
therefore teachable state of mind, by the will of man. A 
pack of fox-hounds is, to a great extent, out of hand while 
engaged in the pursuit of their prey ; but a pointer or setter, 
even when under extreme excitement, is almost completely 
mastered by the superior will. When we observe the extent 
to which human intelligence is affecting the qualities of our 
hunting-dogs, it is not surprising to note that, in almost every 
district where there are peculiar kinds of game, varieties 



THE DOG 29 

of the dog are developing which are especially adapted to 
its pursuit. Thus, in the parts of North America where the 
raccoon abounds, a variety of hunting-dog is in process of 
development which has a singular assemblage of qualities 
which fit it for this peculiar form of the chase. Although as 
yet " coon-dogs " have not been cultivated for a sufficient 
time to acquire distinct physical characteristics, their habits 
exhibit a larger range of specialization than those of any 
other breed of sporting dogs. 

In those parts of the Americas where peccaries are hunted, 
the dogs used in their pursuit have learned to beware of 
assaulting the pack which they have brought to bay, and 
instead of indulofinor in the instinct which leads them into that 
way of danger and of certain death, they circle round the 
assemblage, compelling them to show front on every side and 
so to remain stationary until the hunters come up. Perhaps 
a score of similar specializations in the modes of action of 
our dogs which are employed in the chase could be recited; 
but as they all lead us to one conclusion — which is to the 
effect that these creatures are, as far as their mental powers 
are concerned, like clay in the hands of the potter — we 
may pass them by for some considerations which appear to 
have escaped the attention of writers who have discussed the 
problems of canine intelligence. 

The singular elasticity as regards both mental and physi- 
cal qualities which the dog exhibits, may well be compared 
with the other conditions which we find in certain of our 
domesticated animals, as, for instance, in the horse, where 
the mind shows but slight changes, and where the body has 
proved far less plastic than among dogs. The readiness 
with which the proportions of the dog may, by the breeder's 



30 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

art, be made to vary, is probably due to the fact that the 
group to which this creature belongs is one of relatively 
modern institution. It has the plasticity which we note as a 
characteristic of many other newly-established forms. The 
flexibility of mind is a concomitant of the carnivorous habit 
where creatures obtain their prey by the chase. Such an occu- 




), fpKMtAi***. •'*^ 



Dutch Dogs used in Harness 



pation tends to develop agile minds as well as bodies, and 
where exercised as it doubtless was by the ancestry of the 
dog, in the manner of pack hunting, where many individuals 
share in the chase, it is well calculated to insure a certain 
free and outgoing quality of the mind. 

So long as our clogs were employed in the labor or the 
organized recreations of man, the tendency of the association 
with the superior being was in a high measure educative. 
They were constantly submitted to a more or less critical 



THE DOG 31 

but always effective selection which tended ever to develop 
a hiofher crrade of intellis^ence. With the advance in the 
organization of society the dog is losing something of his 
utility, even in the way of sport. He is fast becoming a 
mere idle favorite, prized for unimportant peculiarities of 
form. The effort in the main is not now to make creatures 
which can help in the employments of man, but to breed for 
show alone, demanding no more intelligence than is necessary 
to make the animal a well-behaved denizen of a house. The 
result is the institution of a wonderful variety in the size, ( 
shape, and special peculiarities of different breeds with 
what appears to be a concomitant loss in their intelligence. 
We often hear it remarked by those who are familiar with 
dogs that the ordinary mongrels are more intelligent and 
more susceptible of high training than the carefully inbred 
varieties, which are more highly prized because they conform 
to some thoroughly artificial standard of form or coloring. 
This is what we should expect from all we know concerning 
the breedinor. W^here for orenerations the dogf-fancier has 
selected for reproduction with reference to the trifling and 
often injurious features of shape he seeks to attain, he natur- 
ally and almost necessarily neglects to choose the creatures 
in regard to their mental peculiarities. The result is that 
the breed tends to fall back in these regards to below the 
level of the ordinary cur, who makes his place in the affec- 
tions of his owner because he has attractive or useful quali- 
ties of mind. It appears to me, in a word, that our treat- 
ment of this noble animal, where he is bred for ornament, is 
in effect degrading. 

Although the formation of our fancy breeds does not 
serve to advance the development of those intellectual feat- 



3 2 DOMESTICA TED ANIMALS 

ures which are the most interesting part of our dogs, the 
experiments have served to show the amazing physical 
plasticity of this species under the conditions of long domes- 
tication. The range in size between a tiny spaniel, such as 
those which are bred in Chihuahua, in northern Mexico, and 
the great Danes or mastiffs of northern Europe, is, perhaps, 
the greatest which has ever been attained in any mammal. 
In some cases the larger individuals belonging to the mastiff 
breed probably weigh nearly thirty times as much as their 
smaller kinsmen. Great as are these variations, they are 
only in form and bulk. They involve none of those curi- 
ous changes in the number of bones of the skeleton which 
we may trace among the domesticated pigeons. We there- 
fore turn from these results of breeders' fancy to consider 
certain of the mental qualities of dogs which have not come 
in our way in our review of the history of its relations to 
man. 

First of all, we may note the fact that the friendly rela- 
tions which dopfs have become accustomed to form with men 
vary exceedingly in their range and activity. Perhaps in no 
other regard does the dog exhibit such distinctly human char- 
acteristics as in the way in which he meets the individuals of 
the mastering species. The gamut of their social relations 
with men is almost exactly parallel with our own. With from 
one to a dozen persons a dog may maintain an attitude of 
almost equally complete sympathy and mutual understanding- 
He may be on terms of acquaintanceship in varied degrees 
of familiarity with a few score others with whom he comes in 
frequent contact. Toward the rest of mankind he maintains 
a position of more or less complete distrust, which with 
experience may attain the indifference which men commonly 



THE DOG 



show toward perfect strangers. If we observe a clog going 
alon^i- a much-frequented street, we may note that his rela- 
tions to the people are substantially those which the folk 
have to each other. He shows as they do a certain consid- 
eration for the individuals he encounters, gives them their 
due place, and yet holds to his own. It is particularly notice- 
able that he avoids all contact with the other passers — in fact 
a doQf has to be 
much beside him- 
self with rage or 
fear, or insane 
from disease, be- 
fore he will break 
those bounds of 
personality which 
civilization has 
set up to guide 
the conduct of 
life. 

The social 

culture of dogs appears to have gone to the point where 
they recognize the meaning of an introduction — at least 
as far as the sympathetic relations of that understanding 
are concerned. Almost any well-bred dog will submit to 
be presented by his master, or even by persons whom he 
knows but is not accustomed to obey, to a stranger to 
whom he has already exhibited some dislike. During the 
introduction he will submit to those formal exchanges of 
courtesy which he is accustomed to recognize as the indices 
of friendship. The impression of this understanding seems 
to be so permanent that on subsequent meetings the dog. 




King Charles Spaniel 



34 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

though he may maintain his original dislike of the man who 
has been forced upon his acquaintance, will continue to treat 
him with a certain consideration, though it is often easy to 
see that it is a difficult matter for him to conform to the 
requirements of society. When we compare the conduct of 
doQfs in these regards with the behavior of other animals, 
even highly domesticated forms, we perceive how marvel- 
lously successful has been man's unconscious effort to mould 
this creature on his own nature. 

Another extremely human characteristic of our canine 
friends is shown in their susceptibility to ridicule. Faint 
traces of this quality are to be found in monkeys and perhaps 
€ven in the more intelligent horses, but nowhere else save in 
man, and hardly there, except in the more sensitive natures, 
do we find contempt, expressed in laughter of the kind which 
conveys that emotion, so keenly and painfully appreciated. 
With those dogs which are endowed with a large human 
quality, such as our various breeds of hounds, it is possible 
by laughing in their faces not only to quell their rage, but to 
drive them to a distance. They seem in a way to be put to 
shame and at the same time hopelessly puzzled as to the 
nature of their predicament. In this connection we may note 
the very human feature that after you have cowed a dog by 
insistent laughter you can never hope to make friends with 
him. A case of this kind is fresh in my experience. A year 
or two ago I was imprudent enough to laugh at a very 
intelligent dog in my neighborhood, he having unreasonably 
assailed me at my house-door, where he had been left for a 
long time to wait while his owner was within and had thereby 
been brought into an unhappy state of mind. Sympathizing 
with his situation, I preferred to laugh him out of his humor 



THE DOG 35 

rather than to beat him with my stick. I regret I did not 
take the other alternative, for I made the poor brute my 
implacable enemy by my pretence of contempt for him. I 
am inclined to think that if I had beaten him the matter 
could have been arranged afterward in a friendly way. 

Another very remarkable and I believe hitherto unnoticed 




likeness between the mind of dogs and that of man is found 
in the fact that these dumb beasts, unlike all other inferior 
animals, except, perhaps, some of the more intelligent species 
of monkeys, will learn lessons from isolated experiences. In 
this regard they are indeed quite as apt as the lower kinds 
of men. Thus a dog who has had an unsavory or painful 
experience with a skunk or a porcupine is apt to keep away 



36 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

from these creatures for a long time thereafter. Where, as 
is not infrequently the case, a cur takes to eating eggs, a 
single dose of tartar emetic concealed in an ^^^ which is 
placed where he can readily find it, is apt to effect an 
immediate and complete reform. This ready learning from 
experience is almost the gist of our human quality — at least 
on the intellectual side of it. 

Perhaps the greatest success to which man has attained 
in his education of the doe is to be found in the measure in 
which he has overcome the fierce rage which clearly charac- 
terized the ancestors of this creature when they first felt the 
mastering hand. The reader cannot understand the intensity 
of the rasfe motive in the carnivora unless he has studied 
some of these brutes in their wild state, where from the time 
in the remote ages when they first began to take on the 
qualities of their species they have survived and won success 
by the fury of their assault. In almost all our breeds of dogs 
this primal ferocity has been overlaid by the various motives 
of rationality, sympathy, and conventional demeanor, until 
one may live half a lifetime with well-bred dogs without a 
chance to see the demon which we have buried in their 
breasts, as we have in our own, beneath a host of civilizing 
influences. It is rare indeed in our day that a dog, unless 
insane, will bite a human being. The most of their assaults 
are pure bluster, mere pretence of fury, as is shown by 
the fact that if, carried away by their pretence, they are led 
to use their teeth, it is usually a mere sham assault, having 
no semblance of the effectiveness of true combat. 

Something of the pristine fury of the primitive dogs may 
still be noted in a certain brutal variety of watch-dogs which 
are still to be found in parts of continental Europe. The 



THE DOG 2>7 

best types of this breed which I have ever seen are to be 
found among the dogs which are kept to guard the quarries 
of Solenhofen, in Bavaria, whence come all the fine litho- 
graphic stones which are so extensively used in printing. 
These quarries are scattered over several square miles of 
untilled country, and the separate pits are to be numbered 
by the score. As much valuable stone is necessarily left 
over night in the quarries, their care is confined to packs of 
watch-dogs which are turned loose at night and appear as 
if by instinct to spend the hours of darkness in prowling 
over the territory. Such is their size and ferocity that it 
takes a sturdy beggar to face them. I remember inadvert- 
ently disturbing one of these brutes from sleep, in the 
strong cage where he was confined, and I have never beheld 
such a picture of blind fury as he exhibited. I had not 
come within twenty feet of him, and was merely moving 
past his place of confinement ; yet he sprang to the grating 
and strove with his teeth to break his way through the bars. 
I thought the animal must be mad, but his keeper assured 
me that such was his ordinary state of mind and that the 
humor was common to all the breed ; even the masters dwelt 
in fear of them. Ordinarily the only exhibitions of the 
innate ferocity of our dogs are to be seen in their combats 
with each other, when for a time the creatures return to their 
primitive state of mind. Even these occasional exhibitions 
of fury are not found among all breeds of dogs, and among 
many individuals even of the combative strains of blood the 
motive of battle appears to have quite passed away. 

In antithesis to the old Ishmaelitic humor of our prim- 
itive dogs, man has developed a singular, sympathetic, and 
kindly motive in these creatures. From the point of view of 



38 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



the clog's education we must not set too much store by his 
affection for his master. This kind of devotion of one being 
to another is displayed elsewhere in the animal kingdom, 
thouof-h it is more common amonor birds than amonor mam- 
mals. We find traces of it in the greater part of our domes- 
ticated creatures or in those which we have individually 
adopted from the wilderness. It is a part of the great sym- 
pathetic motive, which, originating far down in the series of 
animals, increases as they gain in the scale of being, until it 

reaches the high- 
est level it has yet 
attained in spirit- 
ually minded men. 
The eminent pe- 
culiarity in the 
case of a dog- is 
that the very 
centre of his life 
is formed of the 
affections, which 
are evidently the same as those which rule the days of the 
most cultivated men. To him these elements of friendli- 
ness are absolutely necessary to a comfortable existence. If 
by chance he becomes separated from his master and the 
other people with whom he is familiar, his bereavement is 
intense ; but in most cases, at the end of a day or two, he is 
compelled to form new bonds, and he sets about the task in 
an exceedingly human way. I dwell in a town where dogs 
abound and where the frequent coming and going of the peo- 
ple puts many of the creatures astray. Perhaps as often as 
once a week, almost always late in the evening, one of these 




Pomeranian or " Spitz " 



THE DOG 



39 



unhappy lost ones seeks to make friends with me. His 
advances toward this end always begin by his dogging my 
footsteps at a little distance. If I do not repulse him he will 
come nearer until he has made sure of my attention. A 
friendly word will bring him to my hand ; but his behavior 
is never effusive, as it would be if he had found his right- 
ful owner, but mildly propitiative and with a touch of sad- 
ness. There is, it seems to me, no other feature in the life 
of the dog 
which tells 
so much as 
to his moral 
nature as 
his conduct 
under these 
unhappy cir- 
cumstances. 
In the 
long cata- 



logfue of hu- 

^ . Poodles 

man quali- 
ties which characterize our thoroughly domesticated dogs, we 
must not fail to take account of their sense of property. In 
this the creature differs from all other of our domesticated 
animals. It is a common characteristic of mammals, both in 
their wild and tame state, that they feel a motive of ownership 
in the food which they have captured or in the den which 
they have made their lair ; but beyond these narrow personal 
limits we see no evidence of any sense of ownership in land or 
effects. We readily observe, however, that our household dogs 
not only know the chattels of their master and distinguish them 




40 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

from those of other people, but they also learn to recognize 
the bounds of their house-lot or even of a considerable farm. 
When a dog, even of a militant quality, enters on territory 
which he does not feel to belong to him, he is at once a very 
different creature as compared to his condition when he is on 
his own land. He treads warily and will accept without dis- 
pute an order to take himself off. A perception of this sort 
indicates an extraordinary amount of sympathy and discern- 
ment. It requires us to assume that the creature has a good 
sense of topography and that he observes closely the various 
acts, none of them perhaps very indicative, which go to show 
the limits of his master's claims. 

Although the mental qualities of our highly domesticated 
dogs are singularly like those of their masters, the likeness 
going to the point that the household pet is apt to have 
acquired something of the general character of the people 
with whom he dwells, there are many suggestive differences 
arising from failures of development which are in the highest 
measure interesting to those who study the species. We 
note, in the first place, that although for ages in contact with 
the constructive work which occupies his masters, the dog 
shows no tendency whatever to essay any undertakings of 
this nature. He is quite alive to considerations of personal 
comfort and is particularly fond of a warm bed ; yet, except for 
a few unverified stories, we may say that there is no evidence 
whatever to show that they ever try to improve their con- 
ditions by deliberately providing themselves with warm bed- 
ding. In no well-attested case has a dog shown any sense as 
to the nature of any mechanical contrivance. They will 
learn which way a door opens, and rarely if ever do they 
undiscerningly close it when it is slightly ajar and they 



THE DOG 



41 



wish to pass through the opening ; but I have never been 
able to observe or obtain evidence to show that they would 
without teaching pull down a latch in the way in which a 
cat readily learns to do. Much as dogs have had to do with 
guns, they display no kind of interest in the arms except so 
far as they are tokens of sport to come. They connect the 




explosion with the capture of game, and will search for it in 
the direction toward which the barrel was pointed. I have 
not, however, been able to find that they know, as they 
might readily do, and as a crow would surely do, when the 
weapon was loaded and when empty. They show no interest 
in it, such as monkeys readily display toward any mechanical 
contrivance to which their attention has been directed. All 
these negative features indicate that the mechanical side of 
the canine mind is entirely undeveloped. 



42 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

Although there is some evidence that the sense of num- 
ber attains a measure of development in dogs, the ability to 
form mathematical conceptions of any kind appears to be 
very weak in this species. The fact that shepherd-dogs, in a 
way, keep an account of considerable flocks so that they will 
know when one is gone astray, can readily be explained on 
the supposition that they know their charges individually and 
not in sum. The absence of arithmetical capacity is, how- 
ever, less important than the lack of mechanical sense, for the 
reason that such incapacity is also common in the lowest races 
of men. Although dogs, as before noted, quickly and clearly 
acquire a notion of property rights in all which pertains to 
their owner's holdings, they appear never to extend their 
sense of their own personal possessions beyond the original 
limit to which they had attained when the species was domes- 
ticated. The creature feels a sense of personal property in 
his food and in his sleeping-place, but appears not to extend 
his conception of individual rights beyond these primitively 
established limits. 

All our well-bred household dogs quickly learn certain 
bodily habits which are necessary to make them acceptable 
members of a household. These habits are not well affirmed 
by inherited instinct, but the ease with which the instruction 
is acquired shows that they have become prone to submit to 
such regulations. Culture on this line rests upon a primal 
instinct, orieinatine we know not how, which leads a number 
of wild animals to conceal their excrement. On the other 
hand, these creatures exhibit no sense of modesty, though 
that, in a more or less complete measure, is characteristic of 
all human tribes whatsoever. 

As regards the memory, dogs appear to have a consider- 



THE DOG 43 

ably greater measure of capacity than is observable in any 
other group of domesticated animals. There is no question 
that they can recall their associations with people from whom 
they have been separated for a year or more. Some trust- 
worthy anecdotes appear to establish the fact that the recol- 
lections may endure for two or three years. I have observed 
an instance in which the memory seems perfectly clear after 
an interval of eighteen months, and this concerned a person 
who had been with the dog for a period of not more than four 
days. It is interesting to note the behavior of a dog when he 
has failed to recognize a person whom he has known well, 
but from whom he has been long separated. I have a shep- 
herd-dog that has known me well, but the friendship is often 
interrupted by partings of some months' duration. When, 
after one of these absences, I appear to him in the distance, 
he comes furiously towards me, quite possessed by his enmity. 
At a certain point in his charge a doubt begins to beset 
him ; he moderates his pace ; his roaring bark passes into 
a whine ; and as the full measure of his blunder is borne in 
upon him by my voice, he becomes the picture of shame. In 
his perplexity, he always finds relief in endeavoring with his 
paw to scrape a supposititious fly from the side of his nose. 
He then deals with what I suppose to be an equally imagin- 
ary flea ; after he has thus gained a few seconds for readjust- 
ment, he welcomes me joyously. All this is so thoroughly 
human-like, that even the naturalist, the professional doubter, 
is forced to believe that the dog's mind works substantially as 
his own, and that the feelings connected with the action are 
essentially the same. 

While in the case of the elephant and the pig, and in a 
less measure in several other of the lower animals, we have 



44 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

indices of as high or even higher intelHgence than the dog, 
no other brute shows anything like the same measure of what 
we may term human quality. So far as the field of the emo- 
tions is concerned, we are driven to believe that it has been 
bred into the kind by the ages of intimate associations, sup- 
ported by the selective process which has led people to pre- 
serve the individual of the species with which they found 
themselves the most in sympathy. I repeat the suggestion, 
and shall repeat it yet again, for the reason that just here — 
how effectively the reader's imagination will suggest — we find 
a basis for the hope that, with time and care, man may bring 
his subjects of the lower realm into a more intimate, affec- 
tionate, and helpful relation than is dreamed of by those 
who look upon them as mere brutes. 

The most curious limitation which we find in dogs is as to 
the measure of expression to which they have attained. No 
one who has well considered the facts can doubt that our 
civilized varieties of this species have something like a hun- 
dred times as much which deserves utterance as their savage 
forefathers possessed. Yet the capacity for giving note to 
these thoughts or emotions has not gained anything like the 
proportion to the needs. It seems, however, that some gain 
in this direction has been made, and that much may be 
won hereafter in the way of further advance. Never having 
known the species whence our dogs came in its wild state, we 
are uncertain as to its modes of expression ; but, observing 
the varieties of dogs which are kept by savages, it seems 
probable that the primitive canines used their voice only in 
howling or yelping ; that is, as a continuous sound akin to 
the bellowings or other cries of the various wild mammals. 
It is characteristic of all these primitive forms of utterance 



THE DOG 45 

that they are, to a great extent, involuntary, and that when 
the outcry is begun it continues in a mechanical manner, with 
no trace of modulation arising from the conditions of the 
moment. In other words, these actions resemble, in a way, 
sneezinof or hiccouehincr in human kind ; actions which are 
stimulated by certain states of the body, but which are not 
at all under the control of the will. Howlino- or bellowing 
doubtless represents, in a measure, a state of mind as well as 
of body, but the action is of a general and uncontrolled kind. 
The effect of advancing culture upon a dog has been 
gradually to decrease this ancient undifferentiated mode of 
expression afforded by howling and yelping, and to replace it 
by the much more speech-like bark. There is some doubt 
whether the dogs possessed by savages have the power of 
uttering the sharp, specialized note which is so characteristic 
of the civilized forms of their species. It is clear, however, 
that if they have the capacity of thus expressing themselves, 
they use it but rarely. On the other hand, our high-bred dogs 
have, to a great extent, lost the habit of expressing them- 
selves in the ancient way. Many of our breeds appear to 
have become incapable of ululating. There is no doubt but 
this change in the mode of expression greatly increases the 
capacity of our dogs to set forth their states of mind. If we 
watch a high-bred dog, one with a wide range of sensibilities, 
which we may find in breeds which have long been closely 
associated with man, we may readily note five or six varieties 
of sound in the bark, each of which is clearly related to a cer- 
tain state of mind. The bark of welcome, of fear, of rage, of 
doubt, and of pure fun, are almost always perfectly distinct to 
the educated ear, and this although the observer may not be 
acquainted with the creature ; if he knows him well, he may 



46 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

be able to distinguish various other intonations — -those which 
express impatience and even an element of sorrow. This 
last note verges toward the howl. 

It does not seem to me that we should reorard barkine as 
a new and useful invention ; there are, indeed, few such in 
the organic world. The sound appears to me to have been 
derived from the primitive habit of howling. If we hearken 
to this utterance we perceive that it is not an unbroken 
sound, but is somewhat intermittent. At either end of the 
prolonged sound we can often notice that it is divided into 
rather distinct yelps more or less completely separated from 
the other notes. The cries of a dog when beaten often 
exhibit the same peculiarity ; so, too, the puppy, before he 
has attained skill in barking, will often prolong each utter- 
ance in a way which makes its relation to the ancient mode 
of expression tolerably clear. At the risk of being deemed 
fanciful, I venture to suggest that the bark is in effect a divis- 
ion of the howl into clearly separated notes, the change hav- 
ing come about as a similar alteration is effected in our own 
speech, by the increase in the intelligence which the creature 
is called upon to express. I conceive that while the primitive 
and massive emotions found satisfying utterance in the long- 
drawn notes, the more divided state of mind of the human- 
ized successor has led to a change in its utterances. Although 
these modifications of speech, if such we may term them, 
have probably been developed on the basis of the dog's 
human relations, there is, it seems to me, good reason to 
believe that the diversities in note have come to have a 
distinct conventional value between the individuals of all the 
different breeds. Any one who closely observes these animals 
must have noticed the fact that the degree of attention they 



THE DOG 47 

give to the utterances of their kindred varies in a way which 
indicates that they have great varieties of denotations. Some 
of the shades of the meaning which a dog's bark has to 
others of his species probably escape our less fine ears. 

The creation of something like a language among our 
civilized dogs has naturally been accompanied by the develop- 
ment of an understanding of human speech. Although we 
cannot attach much importance to the mass of anecdote on 
this point, there is enough which is well attested — sufficient, 
indeed, which has come within the limits of my own observa- 
tion — to make it clear that dogs, even without deliberate 
teaching, frequently acquire a tolerably clear understanding 
of a number of words and even of short phrases. They will 
catch these not only when given in distinct command, but 
when uttered in an ordinary tone, without any sign that they 
relate to their affairs. It is true that these understood 
words generally relate to some action which the dog is 
accustomed to perform, yet there are instances so well 
attested that they deserve credit, which seem to show that 
the creatures can get some sense of the drift of conversation 
even when it is carried on by persons with whom they are 
not familiar and does not clearly relate to their own affairs. 

It should be observed that within the narrow limits of 
this essay little or no effort has been made to interpret the 
state of mind of dogs from the vast but rather untrustworthy 
mass of anecdote with which our books are filled. So largre 
a part of this evidence is contaminated by prepossessions, and 
a yet larger part is so unverified in any scientific sense, that 
for purposes of sound inquiry it is worthless. It therefore 
seems best to limit ourselves, as has been done in this paper, 
to those oreneral actions of the creatures which are matters 



48 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

of common knowledge and safely beyond question. From 
these indices we are able to determine a basis for some 
important conclusions. These are in effect as follows, viz. : 
Our domestic dog is derived from a species, one or more, 
akin to the wolf, the jackal, and the fox ; to a group of 
animals not characterized by great native intelligence, but 
distinguished for their ferocity and their general untamable- 
ness. There is no reason to believe that the primitive dog 
had any more foundation for his great attainments than his 
obstinately savage kindred, except that he may have had a 
greater disposition to form an attachment to a master. We 
can hardly believe that he had any share of that marvellous 
sympathy with man and understanding of his motives which 
characterize the high-bred varieties of his species. All this 
vast transformation, which from a psychological point of 
view has carried the dog relatively as far up above his origin 
as civilization has lifted man above his lowest estate, has 
been due to human intercourse and the lone and effective 
concomitant selection of good from bad. It is hardly too 
much to say that a large part of our human nature has been 
transferred into the descendants of this ancient wild beast. 
The sense of property, a great part of human affections, 
many of the attributes which constitute the gentleman, have 
been passed over to him. 

In considerincr the effects arisingr from the intercourse of 
man with the clog, we should not overlook the development 
of human sympathy which has come ab^ut through this rela- 
tion. The fact that the dog has been rfiade by far the most 
sympathetic of the lower animals, is due to the affection which 
men for thousands of years have given to him. In his inter- 
course with this creature, man first learned to develop his 



THE DOG 49 

altruistic motives beyond the limits of his own kind. With 
this extension of his affection must have beofun the ofrowth of 
that large motive, which is the most distinguishing feature of 
our modern life, which leads us to go forth in a loving manner 
to the living beings about us, not only to our flocks and herds 
but to the life of the unsubjugated realm as well. Thus, in a 
way, we may look upon the dog as affording the first steps on 
the path of culture which was to lift man from his primitive 
selfishness to the altruistic state to which he has attained. 

Great as has been the work of man upon the dog— it 
deserves, indeed, to be ranked high among all the accom- 
plishments of his culture — there is reason to believe that if 
he but go forward with understanding in the ways which 
have hitherto led him blindly to his success, the final result 
may be very m.uch more perfect than that which has been 
attained. It is on this account that I feel it fit to make 
a strong protest against the system our breeders pursue. 
Except in the case of dogs used in sport and for herding 
sheep, the sole effort appears to be to create breeds which 
shall exhibit peculiarities of form which are mere extrava- 
ofances, and move the real lover of this noble animal to indior- 
nation. In these preposterous and unseemly tasks no care 
is taken to continue the mental development on lines which 
have been established by long use. Still less is there any 
effort to essay the development of the intelligence in ways 
which are clearly open to us, and which afford possibilities 
of lifting this species to a yet nobler companionship with our 
own kind. 

It seems worth while for our associations of dog fanciers 
to undertake to develop varieties of dogs solely with refer- 
ence to the intellectual qualities of the animal. I venture to 
4 



50 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

suggest that those who seek this end should select some of 
the prhnitive types of form, such as are found among the 
undifferentiated mass of the species, those which are improp- 
erly termed mongrels, and this for the reason that among 
these unselected creatures the intelligence is quicker and 
more varied than it is in the highly developed varieties. 
Under skilful trainers the successive generations bred in the 
experimental station should be subjected to tests which will 
indicate the measure of intellectual ability. The results 
already attained by the unconscious selection which man has 
applied serve to indicate that at the end of a century, and 
perhaps in much less time, we might develop an animal 
which in various ways would come to a closer intellectual 
relation with man than any other lower species has attained. 

Cats deserve some mention for the reason, that, while they 
are the least essential, and on the whole the least interesting, 
of domesticated animals, they have had a certain place in 
civilization. They afford, moreover, a capital foil by which to 
set off the virtues of the dog. Nowhere else, indeed, among 
the creatures which are intimately associated with men, do we 
find two related forms which afford, along with a certain like- 
ness, such great diversities of quality. 

We know nothing as to the time when the cat first found 
its way to the associations of man. Presumably this period 
was much later than the advent of the dog into the human 
family. The presumption rests upon the fact that while the 
dog does not demand fixed residence as a condition of its 
fealty, but is at home wherever his master is, the cat is the 
creature of the domicile, caring more indeed for its dwelling- 
place than it ever does for the inmates thereof. In a word, 
the creature must have come to us after our forefathers gave 



THE DOG 51 

up the nomadic life. Nevertheless, the association is very- 
ancient ; it has endured in Egypt at least for a term of 
several thousand years. 

Among the curious features connected with the associa- 
tion of the cat with man, we may note that it is the only 
animal which has been tolerated, esteemed, and at times 
worshipped, without having a single distinctly valuable 
quality. It is, in a small way, serviceable in keeping down 
the excessive development of small rodents, which from the 
beo-innincr have been the self-invited oruests of man. As it is 
in a certain indifferent way sympathetic, and by its caresses 
appears to indicate affection, it has awakened a measure of 
sympathy which it hardly deserves. I have been unable to 
find any authentic instances which go to show the existence 
in cats of any real love for their masters. 

In the matter of intelligence cats appear to rank almost 
as high as dogs. They are even quicker than their canine 
relatives in discerning the nature of man's artful contriv- 
ances ; they readily acquire the habit of opening doors which 
are closed by means of a latch, even where it is necessary to 
combine the strong pull on the handle with the push that 
completes the operation. Feats of this sort are rarely if 
ever performed by dogs. 

The most peculiar quality in the mind of cats is the intense 
way in which they cling to a well-known locality. Their 
memory of places, and affection for them, if we may so term 
it, is evidently far greater than that which they feel for 
people. Some years ago I had an interesting exhibition of 
this singular humor. A well-grown and thoroughly domesti- 
cated cat, one that seemed more than usually attached to 
people, was brought from my house in town to a place on the 



52 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

shore. When released, the creature seemed for some days to 
be nearly insane. It did not recognize any of its friends, it 
betook itself to the fields, and was with difficulty captured at 
the end of a week of roaming, during which it appeared to 
have had no food. Confined within one room, it gradually 
recovered its powers of mind, and began to take account of 
its friends. In the course of a month it seemed to be recon- 
ciled to its surroundings. Nine months after its first sojourn 
in the wilderness it was again brought from the town to the 
same place. On the second visit the creature was somewhat 
uneasy, but this passed away in a day or two. On a third 
visit, after a like interval, it seemed at once and entirely at 
home. Nevertheless, its habits while in the country differ 
very much from those it has in town. In its original domi- 
cile it insists on beine about the table at meal-times. While 
in the country it does not care to be present ; in fact, it 
appears to avoid associations with the household. It seems 
to me that this cat, after the manner of some men whose 
brains are diseased, now lives in two distinct states of con- 
sciousness, each relating to one of its places of abode. 

The differences as regards affection for localities which is 
shown by cats and dogs are perhaps to be accounted for by 
an original and essential variation in the habits of life in their 
wild ancestors. Judging by the kindred of the species which 
are known to us in their wild state, we may fairly suppose 
that the dogs were of old accustomed to range over a wide 
field, having no fixed place of abode ; the pack ranging, if the 
occasion served, for hundreds of miles in any direction. On 
the other hand, with the cats, it is characteristic of the species 
that they have lairs to which they resort, and a definite hunt- 
ing ground in which they seek their food. They are, in a 



I 



THE DOG 55 

word, animals of very determined routine. As there has 
been no effort by breeding to change this feature, it has 
remained in all its old ingrained intensity. 

As a consequence of the affection which cats have for par- 
ticular places, they often return to the wilderness when by 
chance the homes in which they have been reared are aban- 
doned. Thus in New England, in those sections of the dis- 
trict where many farmsteads have of late years been deserted, 
the cats have remained about their ancient haunts and have 
become entirely wild. In this State they are bred in such 
numbers that their presence is now a serious menace to the 
birds and other weaker creatures of the country. The behav- 
ior of these feralized animals differs somewhat from that of 
creatures which have never been tamed. They have not 
Xhe same immediate fear of a man, but the least effort to 
approach them leads to their hasty flight. 

While considering the inelastic quality which is exhibited 
by cats as compared with the dog, the naturalist notes with 
interest the fact that the former creature belongs to a family 
which has never been accustomed to any social life beyond 
the limits of the family. Moreover, all the cats have the 
habit of hunting in a solitary way, each for itself, in the 
achievement and in the result. It is otherwise with dogs. 
They belong to a group which hunts in packs. For ages 
they have been used to a communal life. Their minds 
have thus become accustomed to social intercourse ; they 
are used to havine their excitements of the chase in com- 
radeship, and generally they are accustomed to the rough- 
and-tumble fraternity which we behold in a pack of wolves. 
It was longr aofo remarked that the reallv social animals are 
those which afford the only good material for subjugation. 



56 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

The difference between the cat and dog seems, in a way, to 
warrant this statement. 

Although it is Hkely that many efforts have been made to 
domesticate the other larger felines, no distinct success has 
attended these experiments. A large Asiatic cat known as 
the chetah is somewhat used in hunting for sport, but the 
species has never been adopted in any definite way. In fact, 
with all the larger cats, including the lion, which is structu- 
rally a little apart from the other members of the group, the 
size and furious nature of the animal have made it impossible 
to begin the process of selection which has been the means 
whereby the wilderness motive has been replaced by that 
of the household in the case of all other domesticated 
beasts. 



THE HORSE 

Value of the Strength of the Horse to Man. — Origin of the Horse. — Peculiar Advantage 
of the Solid Hoof. —Domestication of the Horse. — How begun. — Use as a Pack 
Animal. — For War. — Peculiar Advantages of the Animal for Use of Men. — Mental 
Peculiarities. — Variability of Body. — Spontaneous Variations due to Climate. — Varia- 
tions of Breeds. — Effect of the Invention of Horseshoes. — Donkeys and Mules 
compared with Horse. — Especial Value of these Animals. — Diminishing Value of 
Horses in Modern Civilization. — Continued Need of their Service in War. 

The largest economic problem which primitive people 
on their way upward towards civilization had unconsciously 
to face was that of obtainincr some kind of strength which 
could be added to the power of their own weak limbs. For 
all his eminent capacities of body, man is not a strong animal, 
nor is he so built that he can apply the measure of strength 
that is in him to good advantage. There are scores if not 
hundreds of species with which he came in contact in his 
effort to dominate nature that are stronger, swifter, and 
better provided with natural weapons. With the first step 
upward, as in almost all the succeeding steps, the advance 
depended on securing more energy than that with which 
our kind was directly endowed. It is hardly too much to 
say that the progress of mankind beyond the savage state 
would probably never have been effected but for the bodily 
help which has been rendered by a few domesticated animals. 

From the point of view of the student of domesticated 
animals the races of men may well be divided into those 
which have and those which have not the use of the horse. 



58 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

Althouofh there are half a score of other animals which have 
clone much for man, which have indeed stamped themselves 
upon his history, no other creature has been so inseparably 
associated with the great triumphs of our kind, whether won 
on the battle-tield or in the arts of peace. So far as material 
comfort, or even wealth, is concerned, we of the northern 
realms and present age could, perhaps, better spare the 
horse from our present life than either sheep or horned 
cattle; but without this creature it is certain that our 
civilization would never have developed in anything like its 
present form. Lacking the help which the horse gives, it is 
almost certain that, even now, it could not be maintained. 

We know the ancient natural history of the horse more 
completely than that of any other of our domesticated 
animals. We can trace the steps by which its singularly 
strong limbs and feet, on which rests its value to man, were 
formed in the great laboratory of geologic time. The story 
is so closely related to the interests of man that it will be 
well briefly to set it before the reader. In the first stages of 
the Tertiary period, in the age when we begin to trace the 
evolution of the suck-giving animals above the lowly grade 
in which the kangaroos and opossums belong, we find the 
ancestors of our mammalian series all characterized by rather 
weakly organized limbs fitted, as were those of their remoter 
kindred the marsupials, for tree climbing rather than for 
movinor over the surface of the around. The fact is, that all 
the creatures of this great clan acquired their properties of 
body in arboreal life, and with such relatively small and 
light bodies as were fitted for tree climbing. For this use 
the feet need to be loose-jointed, and so the system of five 
toes, each terminating in a sharp and strong nail or claw. 



THE HORSE 59 

became fixed in the inheritances. When, g-aining strength 
and coming to possess a more important place in the world, 
these ancient tree-dwellers were able to occupy the ground 
which of old had been possessed by the great reptiles, the 
limbs that had served well for an arboreal life had to 
undergo many changes in order to fit them for progression 
in the new realm. 

If we watch the progress of a bear over the surface of the 
ground, we readily perceive how lumbering is its gait and how 
poor the speed which it attains. Its slow and shambling 
movement is due to the fact that it has the tree-climbino- 
foot, and is not well fitted for motion such as is required in 
running. To attain anything like speed in this exercise it is 
necessary to support the body on the tips of the toes. Every 
man who has gained any sk-ill in this art knows full well how^ 
incompetent he is if he tries to run with rapidity in the flat- 
footed manner. The bear cannot essay this method of pro- 
gression on the toe-tips because its loose-jointed feet cannot 
be made to support its heavy body. In this way arose the 
necessity of developing a peculiar kind of foot when that part 
had to serve for rapid locomotion. The experiments to this 
end have been numerous and varied. Thus in the elephants, 
which retain the originally numerous toes, the bones of these 
members are planted in an upright position and tied together 
with such strong muscles and sinews, that the foot parts have 
something like the solidity and strength of the upper portions 
of the leo;s. In the sino-le-hoofed or horse-like forms, and in 
the cloven-footed animals, other series of experiments have 
been tried which in the end have proved most successful, 
giving us animals with the speediest movements of any 
animals except the creatures of the air. 



6o 



DOMESTICA TED ANIMALS 



The success which has been attained in our ordinary large 
herbivora, and which has made them competent to evade the 

chase of the 
beasts of prey, 
has been ac- 
compHshed by 
reducing the 
number of the 
toes, giving 
the strength of 
the aborted 
parts to in- 
crease the 
power of those 
remaining. 
The result is 
the formation 
of two great 
groups, the 
double -hoofed 
forms, includ- 
ing the pigs, 
deer, cattle, 
sheep, and 
their kindred, 
and the single- 
toed species, of 
w h i c h our 
horse is the foremost example. In the reduction of the 
number of toes, different , plans were followed in each of 
these groups. In the cloven-hoofed forms, a single toe 




THE HORSE 6l 

first disappeared, leaving but four ; then the two outer of 
these were aborted, leaving two nearly equal digits. In 
the series of the horse, where we can trace the change 
more clearly, we find the earliest form five-toed, but the 
outer and inner digit shrunken so as to become of little 
use. This condition of the creature in the early Tertiaries 
gives us the beginning of the equine series, and shows that 
far away as the creature is now from ourselves, it originated 
from the main stem of mammalian life, from which our own 
forms have sprung. In the next higher stage in time, and 
likewise in development, we find these lessened toes at 
their vanishing point, and two of the remaining digits, lying 
on either side of what corresponds to the middle finger 
in our own hands, beginning to shrink in length and 
volume, while the central toe becomes larger and stronger 
than before. Last in the series we come to our ordinary 
equine form, in which nothing is left but the single massive 
extremity, though the remnants of two of the toes can be 
traced in the form of slender bones known as splints, which 
are altogether enclosed within the skin which wraps the 
region about the fetlock joints. 

As if it were to show to us the history of this marvellous 
organic achievement, nature now and then, though seldom — 
perhaps not oftener than one in ten million instances — sends 
forth a horse with three hoofs to each leQ^. Two of these are 
small and lie on either side of the functioning extremity. 
Each of these hoofs is connected with a splint-bone which has 
in some way suddenly become reminded of its ancient use, 
and develops in a manner to imitate the creatures which 
passed from the earth millions of years ago. In most cases 
the splint-bones have no function whatever to perform. They 



2 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

are indeed superfluous and injurious parts, and are likely 
from time to time to be worse than useless, becoming the 
seats of disease. In this beautiful instance, perhaps the fair- 
est of all those showing how the highly developed forms of 
our time retain a memory of their ancestral life, we see how 
the advance in the series of the horse has been effected 
against the resistance ancient organic habit opposes to all 
Qfains. We can therefore the better understand how the 
building of the hoof represents the labor of geologic ages 
durinor which the slow-made a-ains were won. 

In its present elaborate form, the hoof of a horse is the 
most perfect instrument of support which has been devised 
in the animal kingdom to uphold a large and swiftly moving 
animal in its passage over the ground. The original toe-nail, 
and the neighboring soft parts connected with it, have been 
modified into a structure which in an extraordinary manner 
combines solidity with elasticity, so that it may strike violent 
blows upon the hard surface of the earth without harm. The 
bones of the toe to which it is afhxed have enlarged with the 
progressive loss of their neighbors of the extremity, until they 
fairly continue the dimensions of the bony parts of the leg. 
Moreover, they have lengthened out, so as to give the limb a 
great extension, and this, in turn, magnifies the stride which 
the creature can take in running. The result is that the 
horse can carry a greater weight at a swifter speed than any 
other animal approaching it in size. 

The needs which led, in a slow accumulative way, to the 
invention of the admirable contrivance of the horse's foot, 
were doubtless founded on the necessities of swift movement 
in fleeing from the great predaceous animals. Incidentally, 
however, as this development has gone on, the peculiarities 



THE HORSE 65 

of the extremity have proved highly advantageous in defence, 
and the creatures have acquired certain peculiar ways of 
using their feet effectively to this end. The solid character 
of the hoof, its considerable weight, and the great power of 
the muscles of the hams, which are the principal agents in 
propelling the animal, make the hind feet capable of deliver- 
ing a very powerful blow. The measure of its efficiency may 
be judged from the fact that a lion has been slain by a stroke 
from the foot of a donkey, and in their wild state a herd of 
horses with their heads together, can beat off the attack of 
the most powerful beasts of prey. In using the hind feet for 
assault or defence, horses have adopted an effective method 
of kicking: which is unknown amono- other animals. Restinp- 
on their fore-legs, the hinder feet are thrown backward and 
upward, so that they may strike a blow six feet from the 
ground. Many of our cloven-footed animals have learned to 
strike cutting blows with the sharp hoofs of their fore-limbs 
— our bulls will stamp a fallen enemy with great force ; but 
the backward kick of the horse is a peculiar movement, and 
is distinctly related to the peculiar structure of the animal's 
extremities. 

It is an interesting fact that the development of a long 
and slowly elaborated series leading to the making of the 
horse appears to have taken place mainly, if not altogether, 
in the region about the headwaters of the Missouri River. 
In the olden days when this great work was done, that part 
of our continent was a well-watered country, much of its sur- 
face being occupied by great lakes which have long since dis- 
appeared. In the deposits accumulated in these bodies of 
fresh water are found the bones of the olden species telling 
the history of their series. It is not yet certain that the final 
5 



66 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

step of the accomplishment which gave us our existing spe- 
cies was effected in this land. It seems indeed most likely 
that the ancestral form of our domesticated horses found 
their way to the continents of the Old World, and there 
underwent the last slight changes, before they were made 
captive by man. If there ever were perfect horses on this 
continent, they had passed away from its area before the 
coming of man to the land. The history of our aborigines 
would have been quite other than it has been, if they had 
had a chance to win the assistance of this noble helpmeet. 

Central Asia appears to have been the domicile of the 
horse when he first began his acquaintance with our kind. 
We do not know the original form of the creature. The 
wild horses existing at the present day in that part of the 
world, and which plentifully occur in other regions whereunto 
they have been taken by man, appear to have been set free 
from captivity. 

The first domestication of the horse appears to have been | 
brought about, at an early time in the history of our race, in 
northern Asia. The time when this feat was accomplished 
antedates our records. The creature may first have come 
into possession of the Tartar tribes, but it quickly passed 
over Asia and Europe and shortly became the mainstay of 
the Aryan and Semitic folk. None other of our domesti- 
cated forms has been disseminated with like rapidity, or at 
the outset with as little change in its orio-inal features. From 
the first the horse seems to have been mainly used as a saddle 
and pack animal. It has never served in any considerable 
measure for food. The failure to make use of the flesh of 
this animal appears to be common to most of the savage or 
barbaric people who keep horses, and has been transmitted 



THE HORSE 



67 



in a singularly definite way to all civilized folk. The origin 
of such a prejudice, despite the fact that the fiesh of the 
horse is of excellent quality, can only be explained through 
the sympathetic motives conimon to all men. Their associa- 
tion with the horse, as with the doof, is so intimate as to make 
the use of these animals in the form of food more or less 
repugnant. In a small though unimportant way, mares have 
been used for milk, and there seems no reason to doubt that, 
if they had , 
been care- 
fully bred 
for this pur- 
pose, they 
miorht have 
been as ser- 
viceable as 
the cow. It 
may be that 
the failure 
to use the 

milk of the horse is to be accounted for on the same ground 
as the dislike to its flesh. 

The horse was probably at first most valued for its use 
in war. The peoples which possessed it certainly had a great 
advantage over their less well provided neighbors. In fact 
the development of the military art, as distinguished from 
the mere fighting of savages, was made easy by the strength, 
endurance, fleetness, and measure of bravery characterizing 
this creature. In the wide range of species which have been 
domesticated or might be won to companionship with man, 
there is none other which so completely supplements the 




Horse of a Bulgarian Marauder 



68 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



imperfect human body, making it fit for great deeds. If the 
horse had been much smaller or larger than he is, he would 
have been far less serviceable to man. It was a most fortu- 
nate accident that the creature came to us with the propor- 
tions which insured a high measure of utility in various lines 
of activity. The elephant has been found too large for agri- 



jmammmm^- 




Wlare and Foal 



cultural uses, and too powerful to be controlled by the will 
and force of his master under conditions of excitement. 

Those peoples which early acquired the resources in the 
way of strength and fleetness which the horse put at their 
disposition, became inevitably the conquerors of the folk who 
were denied these advantages. If we consider the conditions 
which have led to the domination of the world by the Aryan 
and Semitic people, and the races which they have affiliated 
with them, we readily discern the fact that they have, to a 



THE HORSE 69 

great extent, won by horse-power rather than by their own 
physical strength. Thus equipped by their able servants, 
they have pressed outward from their ancient realms and 
have in a way overridden the tribes which were unmounted. 

So imposing is the effect of the horsed man on all peoples 
who are without previous knowledge of the united creatures, 
that it always carries fear to their hearts. To such folk the 
combination appears as a single terrible being. The ease 
with which the Spaniards conquered Mexico and Peru can, 
to a great extent, be attributed to the awe carried into the 
ranks of the savage footmen by their mail-clad horses. The 
Greeks, who were wont to represent the forces of nature and 
the accomplishments of man by skilfully constructed myths, 
have left a record showing their appreciation of the streno-th 
derived from the union of horse and man, in their fable of 
the Centaur, which possibly grew up in a time before their 
people had won the use of the animal, and when they only 
knew the creature by chance encounters with enemies who 
were mounted upon them. Although the naturalist of to-day 
perceives the impossibility of there ever having been on this 
earth a form uniting the trunk and fore-limbs of a quadruped 
to the upper part of a man's body, such scientific conceptions 
are a part of our modern, recently acquired store of knowl- 
edge. To the Greeks of the myth-making age the creature, 
half man, half horse, added but one more wonder to the vast 
store the world already contained. The currency of this 
fable shows us very clearly how great was the impression 
Avhich the horse made upon primitive peoples. 

To perceive the value of the horse in those ancient con- 
tests which opened the paths of civilization, we must note 
the fact that, until the invention of gunpowder, success in 



70 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

breaking the ranks of an enemy depended mainly on the 
charge. With a large body of vigorous horsemen it was 
generally possible to overwhelm an enemy's line of battle, 
either by direct assault or by an attack on its fiank or rear. 
If the reader is curious to see the value of horsemen in 
ancient warfare, he should read the story of the campaigns of 
Hannibal against the Romans in Italy. The first successes 
of that great commander — victories which came near changing 
the history of the western world — were almost altogether due 
to the strength lying in his admirable Numidian cavalry. 
The Romans were already good soldiers, their footmen more 
trustworthy than those which the Carthagenian general could 
set against them ; but with his horsemen, as at Cannae, he 
could wrap in the Roman line and reduce the most valiant 
leo-ions to the confused herd which awaited the butcher. 

Although the invention of firearms has somewhat chanpfed 
the conditions under which cavalry may be used, making 
indeed the direct charge more costly to the assailant than the 
assailed, it has in no wise diminished, but rather increased, 
the value of horses in military campaigns. In the line of 
battle horses have become necessary for the conveyance of 
field officers and messengers, and the right arm of battle, the 
artillery, could not possibl)^ be managed except by horse- 
power. The swift marches of modern armies, by hastening 
the issue of contests, have spared the world half the woes 
of its great campaigns, and are made possible by the ready 
movement of supply trains, which could not be effected 
except by the help of these creatures. The result is that a 
large part of the military strength of any state rests not only 
in the valor and training of its fighting men, but in the 
supply of horses that its fields may afford. In this connection 




Cavalry Horse 



THE HORSE 



/o 



it is instructive to compare the military strength of a countr)- 
like China, where the horse is not a common element in the 
life of the people, with that of any of the western folk who 
may hereafter have to wrestle with that populous empire. 
Some writers, in their efforts to forecast the large politics of 
the future, have imagined that when the hardy and obedient 
Chinaman came to receive the European training in the mili- 




Pluugh Hiirsub, Fr 



tary art, the armies of that country might prove from their 
numbers a menace to our own civilization. Such an issue 
seems in a high degree improbable, for the reason that the 
eastern realm could not provide the horses which would be 
necessary for the use of invading armies ; nor is it at all likely 
that the rigid framework of their society will ever be so 
altered as to provide an abundance of these animals. 

Although in the first instance the horse served mainly, if 



74 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

not altogether, as an ally of man in his contests with his 
neighbors, its most substantial use has been in the peaceful 
arts. As pack animal and drawer of the plough, the ox 
appears in general to have come into use before its swifter 
companion. The displacement of horned cattle has been due 
to the fact that their structure and habits make them much 
less fit for arduous and lonor-continued labor than the horse 
has been found to be. The cloven foot, because of its 
division, is weak. It cannot sustain a heavy burden. Even 
with the unincumbered weight of the body of the animal, the 
feet are apt to become sore in marches which the heavily 
mounted horse endures unharmed. Centuries of experience 
have shown that while the ox is an excellent animal for 
drawing a plough in a stubborn soil, and is well adapted to 
pulling carriages where the burden is heavy and the speed is 
not a matter of importance and the distance not great, the 
creature is too slow for the greater part of the work which 
the farmer needs to do. The pace which they can be made to 
take in walkino- is not more than half as ereat as that of a 
quick-footed horse moving in the same gait ; and the ox is 
practically incapable, because of its weak feet, of keeping up 
a trot on any ordinary road. But for the fact that an aged 
ox may be used for beef, they would doubtless long since 
have ceased to serve us as draught animals. As it is, with 
the growing money value of the laborer's time, this slow- 
moving creature is steadily and rather rapidly disappearing 
from our farms. This change, indeed, is one of the most 
indicative of all those now occurring in our agriculture. It 
is an excellent example of the operations which the increase 
in the workman's pay is bringing into our civilization. 

The natural advantages of the horse for the' use of man 



THE HORSE 75 

consisted in its size, strength, and endurance to burden ; 
form of the body, which enabled a skilful rider to maintain 
his position astride the trunk ; and the peculiar shape of the 
mouth and disposition of the teeth which made it possible to 
use the bit. With these direct physical advantages there 
were others of a physiological and psychic sort, of equal 
value. The creature breeds as well under domestication as 
in the wilderness ; the young are fit for some service in the 
third year of their life, and are, at least in the less elaborated 
breeds, in a mature condition when they are five years old. 
Experience shows that the animal can subsist on a great 
variety of diet, being in this regard surpassed only by its 
humbler kinsman the donkey, and by the goats. There are 
few fields so lean that they will not maintain serviceable 
horses. They do well alike in mountain pastures and amid 
the herbage of the moistest plainland. 

The mental peculiarities of the horse are much less char- 
acteristic than, its physical. It is indeed the common opinion, 
among those who do not know the animal well, that it is 
endowed with much sagacity, but no experienced and careful 
observer is likely to maintain this opinion. All such students 
find the intelligence of the horse to be very limited. It 
requires but little observation to show that the creature 
observes quickly, and in some way classifies the objects with 
which it comes in contact. The fear aroused in it by 
unknown things makes this feature of attention to the sur- 
rounding world very evident. Almost all these animals 
retain a tolerably distinct memory of the roads which they 
have traversed, even if they have passed over them but a few 
times. The studies which I have made on this point show 
me that the average horse will be able to return on a road 



76 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



which it has traversed a few hours before, with less risk of 
blundering than an ordinary driver. Some well-endowed 
animals can remember as many as a dozen turnings in a path 
over which they have journeyed three or four times. It 
seems almost certain that their guidance in these movements 
is not at all effected by the sense of smell, but is due to a 
distinct memory of the detailed features of the country. 




Belgian Fisherman's Horse 

Good as is the horse's memory, it is difficult to organize 
its actions on that basis. Only in rare cases and with much 
labor can he be taught to execute movements that are at all 
complicated. Fire-engine horses may be trained of their own 
will to step into the position where they are to be attached to 
the carriage. Some artillery horses will, as I have noticed, 
associate the sound of the buole with the resultincr move- 
ments of the guns and take the appropriate positions, where 
they may be out of danger in the rapid swinging of the 



THE HORSE J J 

teams and carriages. It is partly because of this trainino- 
received by disciplined artillery horses, that it seems to many 
experienced officers not worth while to have militia com- 
panies in this arm, who have to manoeuvre with animals 
untrained for the service. Although some part of this men- 
tal defect in the horse, causing its actions to be widely con- 
trasted with those of the dog, may be due to a lack of delib- 
erate training and to breeding with reference to intellectual 
accomplishment, we see by comparing the creature with the 
elephant, which practically has never been bred in captivity, 
that the equine mind is, from the point of view of rationality, 
very feeble. 

The emotional side of the horse's nature seems little more 
developed than its rational. Although they have a certain 
affection for the hand which feeds them, and in a mild way 
are disposed to form friendships with other animals, they are 
not really affectionate, and never, so far as I have been able 
to find, show any distinct signs of grief at separation from 
their masters or of pleasure when they return to them. 
Although there are many stories appearing to indicate a 
certain faithfulness in horses which have remained beside 
their fallen and wounded riders, the facts do not justif)- us 
in supposing that such actions are due to the affection a dog 
clearly feels. 

We have been singularly led astray by a chance use of 
the epithet " horse," which has come to be applied to many 
organic forms and functions where strength is indicated. 
Thus, in the case of plants w^e speak of " horse-radish " or 
"horse-mint," denoting thereby spices which have strong 
qualities. Horse-chestnut is another instance of the applica- 
tion of the term to plants. It chanced that "horse-sense" 



78 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

came to be used to Indicate a sound understanding, and in an 
obscure way, but in a manner common with words, this has 
led to a vague impHcation of mental capacity in the animals 
whence the term is derived. The fact is that our horses, as 
far as their mental powers are concerned, appear to be the 
least improvable of our great domesticated animals. 




ng on the Beach in Holland 



Little elastic as the horse appears to be on the psychic 
side of its nature, in its physical aspects it is one of the most 
plastic of all the forms subjected to the breeder's art. It 
requires no more than a glance at the streets of our large 
cities to see how great is the range in size, form, and carriage 
of these animals which may be found in an}^ of our great 
centres of civilization. We readily perceive that these varia- 
tions have a distinct relation to the several divisions of human 
activity in which this creature has a share. The massive 








A Hurdle Jumper 



THE HORSE 8i 

cart-horse, weighing it may be as much as eighteen hundred 
or two thousand pounds, heavy Hmbed, big headed, unwilHng 
to move at a pace faster than a slow trot, yet not without 
the measure of beauty seemingly inseparable from the spe- 
cies, contrasts very markedly with the alert saddle animal bred 
for speed and grace, and for the easy movement which makes 
it comfortable to the equestrian. Between these extremes 
we may note minor differences which, though they may not 
strike those persons who take only a commonplace view of 
the creatures, are most marked to the initiated. The trotter, 
the coach horse, the strong but nimble animals which are 
used in fire-engines and other heavy carriages which have to 
be swiftly moved, mark the results of breeding designed 
to insure particular qualities, and show how readily the 
physical features of the animal can be made to fit to our 
desires. 

Although from an early day a certain amount of care has 
been given to breeding horses for saddle purposes, the careful 
and continuous choice which has led to the modern variations 
is a matter of only a few centuries of endeavor. So far as we 
can judge from the classic monuments, the olden varieties 
were mere varieties of the pony — the small, compact, agile 
creature which had not departed far from the parent wild 
form. It seems to me doubtful whether any of the horses 
possessed by the Greeks or Romans attained a weight much 
exceeding a thousand pounds, or had the peculiarities of our 
modern breeds. The first considerable departure from the 
original type appears to have been brought about when it 
became necessary to provide a creature which could serve as 
a mount for the heavy armored knights of the Middle Ages, 
where man and horse were weighted with from one to two 



82 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

hundred pounds of metal. To serve this need it was neces- 
sary to have a saddle animal of unusual strength, weighing 
about three-quarters of a ton, easily controllable and at once 
fairly speedy and nimble. To meet this necessity the Nor- 
man horse was gradually evolved, the form naturally taking 
shape in that part of Europe where the iron-clad warrior was 
most perfectly developed. In the tapestries and other illus- 
trative work of that day, when the knight won tournaments 
and battle-fields, gaining victory by the weight and speed 
which he brought to bear upon his enemies, we can see this 
splendid animal, in physical form, at least, the finest product 
of man's care and skill in the development of the lower 
species. 

With the advance in the use of hrearms the value of the 
Norman horse in the art of war rapidly diminished. This 
breed, however, has, with slight modifications, survived, and 
is extensively used for draught purposes where strength at 
the sacrifice of speed is demanded. It is a curious fact that 
the creatures which now draw the beer wao^ons of London 
often afford the nearest living successors in form to the 
horses which bore the mediaeval knights. It is an ignoble 
change, but we must be grateful for any accident which has 
preserved to us, though in a somewhat degraded form, this 
noblest product of the breeder's art, which, even as much as 
the valor of our ancestors, won success for our Teutonic 
folk in their great struggle with Islam. A tincture of this 
Norman blood, perhaps the firmest fixed in the species of any 
variety, pervades many other strains most valuable in our 
arts. The best of our artillery horses, particularly those set 
next the wheels, are generally in part Norman. In the well- 
known American Morgan, the swiftest and strongest of our 



THE HORSE 83 

harnessed forms, the observant eye detects indications of this 
masterful blood. 

The Norman strains of horses retain certain Interesting 
indications of their ancient lineage and occupation. As 
appears to be common with old breeds, the stock is readily- 
maintained. It breeds true to its ancestry, with little 
tendency to those aberrations so common in the newly 
instituted varieties. When crossed with other strains, the 
effect of the intermixture of this strong blood is distinctly 
traceable for many generations. In their mental habits these 
creatures still appear to show something of the effects of their 
old use in war ; it is a valiant race, less given to insane fear 
than other strains, and, even under excitement, more con- 
trollable than the most of their kindred. So far as I have 
been able to learn, they seem singularly free from those wild 
panics which are so common among our ordinary horses. It 
does not seem to me fanciful to suppose that these qualities 
were bred in the stock during the centuries of experience 
with the confusion of battle-fields and tournaments. 

The horse, in common with the other domesticated 
animals varying readily in the hands of the breeder, under- 
goes a certain spontaneous change which in a way corre- 
sponds to the physiography of the region in which it is bred. 
At first sight it may seem as if these alterations are due 
to the admixture of previously existing varieties, or to the 
institution of peculiarities by some process of selection. I 
am, however, well convinced that these variations are in good 
part due to a direct influence from the environment. Thus 
in our high northern lands there is a distinct and spontaneous 
reduction in size of the creatures, which attains its farthest 
■point in the Shetland pony. Again, as we go toward the 



84 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



tropics, a like though less conspicuous decrease in bulk is 
observable. The largest animals of the species develop in 
the middle latitudes, the realm where the form appears to 
have acquired its characters. The speed with which these 
local variations are made is often great. Thus the horses of 
Kentucky have, in about a century, acquired a certain stamp 
of the soil which makes it possible, in most cases, for the 




Exercising the Thoroughbreds 

observer to identify an individual as from that State, though 
he may find it in a field a thousand miles away. The defining 
indications are not limited altogether to bodily form, but are 
shown in what might seem trifling features of carriage and 
behavior. The difference between the horses of Great 
Britain and those of the United States seems to me, from 
repeated observations, to be quite as great as that separating 
the men of the two realms. I believe that if a lot of a 
thousand, taken in equal parts from either land, were put 
together, a person well accustomed to taking account of 



THE HORSE 



85 



these animals could separate them into two herds, with less 
than ten per cent, of error. It is doubtful if a more perfect 
selection could be made if the same experiment were tried on 
an equal number of men, provided the indices to be derived 
from peculiarities of speech or dress could be excluded. 

By some the Arabian horse is thought to be the most 
remarkable specialization of the kind which has been attained. 








An Arabian Horse 



In his native country and in his perfection, the Arab breed 
has been seen by but few persons who have been specially 
trained in noting the peculiarities of the animal. So far as I 
have been able to judge by pictures and a few specimens, said 
to be thoroughbreds of their stock, which I have had a chance 
to see, the Arabian form of the horse appears to have been 
led less far away from the primitive stock than many of our 
European and American varieties. 



86 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



The very great, if not the preeminent, success of the horse 
in Arabia is the more remarkable from the fact that it has 
been attained under conditions which, from an a p7^iori point 
of view, must be deemed most unfavorable. This variety has 
been bred in a land of scant herbage and deficient water- 
supply, where the creature has had from time to time, indeed 
we may say generally, to endure something of the dearth of 




Arabian Sports 



food which stunts the Indian ponies and the other horses of 
the Cordilleran district. The ancestors of the horse appear 
to have attained their dev^elopment in well-watered and fertile 
regions. All the varieties bred within the limits of civilization 
do best on rich pasturages such as Arabia does not afford. 
The success of the horse in that land shows how devoted 
must have been the care which has been given to its nurture. 
Fitting, as the Arabian horse does, exactly to the needs of 
nomadic people engaged in almost constant warfare, it has 



THE HORSE 87 

naturally been a far more important helper to the wild folk 
of the desert lands about the eastern Mediterranean and the 
Red Sea than to any other race. In those lands horses fell 
into the keeping- of a very able folk. The contrast between 
the care devoted to the animals by them, and that which 
our Indians give to their ponies, is a fair measure of the 
difference in the ability of these very diverse races. 

As a whole, the horse demands for his best nurture and 
keeping an amount of care required by no other animal which 
has been won to the uses of man, unless perhaps it be the 
silkworm. Kept in its best state, the horse has to be sedu- 
lously groomed. To be maintained in its very best condition 
some hours of human labor must each day be given to keep- 
ing his skin in order. The effect arising from a friction on 
the horse's hide is not confined to the beauty that comes 
from cleanliness, but in a curious way reacts upon the general 
nervous tone of the animal. All those who are familiar with 
horses will, I think, agree with me that much grooming dis- 
tinctly increases the endurance and elasticity of their bodies. 
The influence of the grooming process appears to be some- 
what like that obtained by massage and friction of the skin 
in the training of an athlete. More than once I have had 
occasion to observe the effect of this process on some ancient 
horse of good blood, which for years had been allowed in its 
old age to go uncared for as an idle tenant of the pastures. 
Two or three days of assiduous grooming will bring back the 
strength and suppleness to the aged limbs, and restore some- 
thing of the olden spirit. The effect obtained from this care 
is the more remarkable for the reason that nothing similiar 
to it was experienced by the wild ancestors of these creatures. 
It is as artificial as bathing in the case of man. The influ- 



88 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

ence of the treatment shows how very unnatural is the state 
of our civiHzed horses. 

The task of providing horses with food is more consider- 
able than in the case of any of our other domesticated creat- 
ures. By nature the animal is a frequent feeder, and does 
not well endure long fasts. Its stomach is rather small for 
the size of the body, and the digestive process appears to be 
more than usually rapid. A mounted animal, when taxed to 
its utmost, should be fed four or five times a day, and with 
less than three good meals is apt to break down. No such 
care in the matter of provender is necessary in the case of 
the other members of man's animal family. The contrast 
between the physiological conditions of the camel and those 
of the horse are fully recognized by the Arabs, in their almost 
complete neglect of the individuals of the one species and 
their exceeding care of the other. 

Perhaps the greatest element of care which man has had 
to devote to the horse is found in the matter of shoeing. In 
the state of nature the admirably constructed hoof sufficiently 
provided the animal against the excessive wearing of its 
horny extremity. Nature, however, rarely provides for more 
strength and endurance than the creature in its wild state 
demands ; and so it comes about that when horses have to 
bear burdens or draw carriages, particularly on roadways, 
their unprotected feet will not withstand the strain which is 
put upon them, the rate of growth of the structure com- 
posing the hoof not being sufficiently rapid to make good 
the wearing which these unnatural conditions impose. For 
thousands of years, in the roadless stages of man's develop- 
ment, the difficulties arising from the wearing of the hoof 
were not serious, for the creatures trod either on turf-covered 



THE HORSE 91 

plains or on the soft ways of the desert. When the advance 
of culture made roads necessary, when carriages were invented 
and something like our modern conditions were instituted, it 
became imperatively necessary to provide additional protec- 
tion for the feet. We find the Greeks, in the classic time, 
wrestling with this problem. Xenophon, in his treatise on 
the care of horses, advises that they be reared on stony 
ofround, he havinp- observed that, in a natural way, the hoof 
becomes somewhat adapted to the necessities of its condi- 
tions. The Romans found the difTficulty from the tender 
foot of the horse yet more serious on their paved roads ; but 
both these classic people showed, in their ways of dealing 
with the difficulty, that lack of inventive skill which so 
curiously separates the olden from the modern men. They 
devised soles of leather and bags as coverings for the horse's 
feet, but none of the contrivances could have been very 
serviceable. All such coverings must have been quickly worn 
out in active use. 

So far as we can determine, it was not until about the 
fourth century of our era that the iron horseshoe was 
invented. This valuable contrivance appears to have origi- 
nated in Greek or Roman lands, probably in the former 
realm, for it first bore the name of " selene," from its likeness 
to the crescent shape of the new moon. Although simple, 
the horseshoe was a most important invention, for it com- 
pletely reconciled the animal to the conditions of our higher 
civilization by removing the one hinderance to its general use 
in the work of war and commerce. It is probable that with 
this invention beean the ereat task of differentiating^ the 
several breeds of European horses for their use in various 
employments, as draught animals for packing purposes, as 



92 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



liofht saddle horses, and the bearins: of armored men. Neither 
the draught nor the war horses of Europe could well have 
been specialized until their heavy bodies were separated from 
the ground by these metallic coverings of the hoof. 

Much has depended on the specialization of the horse 
into different breeds, made possible by the iron shoe. By 




Syrian Horse 

reconciling the creature to uses — agriculture, which depends 
on draught animals, and the commerce of importance, which 
can only be effected by means of wagons — the rapid economic 
development of our civilization was made possible. By 
developing a horse capable of bearing an armored man, 
Europe was brought into a condition in which organized 
armies took the place of mere forays, and so the development 
of centralized states was promoted. In the warfare between 
the Mohammedans and the Christian states of Europe, in 



THE HORSE 93 

the campaigns with the Turks and the Saracens, it is easy to 
see that the powerful breeds of horses reared in western and 
northern Europe were a mighty element in determining the 
issue of the contest. The battles of these momentous cam- 
paigns represented, not only a struggle between the Christian 
Aryans and the Semitic followers of Mahomet, but, in quite 
as great a degree, the war was waged between the light and 
agile steeds of the Orient and the massive and powerful 
animals that bore the mail-clad warriors of the West. On 
the field of Tours, when the fate of Christian Europe for 
hours hung in the balance, we may well believe that the 
strong and enduring horses of the northern cavalry did much 
to give victory to our race. 

Along with our general account of the place of the horse 
in civilization, it is fit to give something to the story of his 
near, though inferior, kinsmen, the ass and the mule, both of 
which have played a subordinate, though important, part in 
the same field of endeavor in which the nobler species has 
done so much for man. The original progenitors of our 
donkeys differed from the ancestral form of the horse by 
variations of good specific value. So far as we can determine 
from visible features, these forms were more distinctly parted 
than the dog and the wolf, or either of these animals from 
the jackal. Nevertheless, these equine forms are clearly 
closely akin, for they may be bred together. Although the 
original stock of the ass may possibly have been lost, it seems 
most likely that the wild forms which exist in Asia have not 
wandered off from captivity, but are the remnants of the 
original wilderness form. 

It appears likely that the two domesticated equine species 
have been under the care of man for about the same length 



94 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

of time ; but the difference in their condition, and in the 
place which they hold in civilization, is very great. As we 
have seen, the horse has been made to vary in a singular 
measure, its form and other qualities changing to meet the 
need or fancy of its master. Its humbler kinsman has 
remained almost unchanged. Except small differences in 
size, the donkeys in different parts of the world are singularly 
alike. In part this lack of change may be explained by the 
relative neglect with which this species has been treated. 
From the point of view of the breeder it has perhaps been 
the least cared for of any of our completely domesticated 
animals. In some parts of the world, as for instance in 
Spain, where a long-continued effort has been made to 
develop the animal for interbreeding with the horse, the 
result shows that the form is relatively inelastic. It is doubt- 
ful if any conceivable amount of care would develop such 
variations as the horse now exhibits. 

The principal hinderances to the general acceptation of 
the donkey as a help-meet to man are found in its small 
size and slow motion. These qualities make the creature 
unserviceable in active war or in agriculture, and they seem 
to be so fixed in the blood that they are not to any extent 
corrigible. So long as pack animals were in general use, and 
in those parts of the world where the conditions of culture 
cause this method of transportation to be retained, the 
qualities of the donkey have proved and are still found of 
value. The animal can carry a relatively heavy burden, 
beine in such tasks, for its v^eii^ht, more efficient than the 
horse. It is less liable to stampedes. It learns a round 
of duty much more effectively than that creature, and can 
subsist by browsing on coarse herbage, where a horse 



THE HORSE 95 

would be so far weakened as to become useless. Thus, in 
developing the mines in the unimproved wilderness of the 
Cordilleras, where ores of the precious metals have to be 
carried for considerable distances, trains of "burros" are 
often employed. The animals quickly learn the nature of 
their task, and will do their work with but little guidance 
from man. 

In general we may say that the donkeys belong to a 
vanishing; state of human culture, to the time before carriage- 
ways existed. Now that civilization goes on wheels, they 
seem likely to have an ever-decreasing value. A century 
ago they were almost everywhere in common use. At the 
present time there are probably millions of people in the 
United States to whom the animal is known only by descrip- 
tion. In a word, the creature marks a stage in the develop- 
ment of our industries which is passing away as rapidly as 
that in which the spinning-wheel and the hand-loom played 
a part. 

As the use of the ass in the economic arts began to 
decline, the mule or hybrid progeny of this creature and the 
horse has progressively increased. Although the value of 
this mongrel has been known, particularly in southern 
Europe, from very early days, its most extensive employment 
has been found in the old slave-holdine States of the Federal 
union. The custom of usino- mules has been almost unknown 
in England, and has never been generally adopted in the 
northern part of the United States. It appears to have been 
introduced into southern regions by the Spaniards and the 
French, and there to have spread, because of the peculiar 
fitness of the creature to the climate and the employment it 
had to endure in that part of America. The mule has the 



96 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



peculiar advantage that it is on the average as large as the 
horse, is nearly as quick-footed when walking, and has at the 
same time a considerable share of the patient endurance to 
hard labor and scant fare which characterizes the donkeys. 
It matures somewhat more speedily than its nobler kinsman, 
being ready to meet severe strains perhaps a year earlier. 











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In the Circus 



Unless unconscionably abused, its period of fitness for hard 
work endures about one-third longer, often lasting for thirty 
years. It is singularly exempt from disease, its sturdy 
frame withstanding rude usage until the old age time. 

The mule is especially interesting to the naturalist for the 
reason that it affords the only certain case in which a hybrid 
has proved decidedly serviceable to man. It is not unlikely 
that a similar mixture of the blood of two species occurs in 
our ordinary cats, and it may exist in the case of the dog 



THE HORSE 97 

and in some of the domestic birds ; but so far as we know, 
there has been no other useful result from the hybridizing, if 
it has occurred. Moreover, the mule is unique for the fact 
that the animal is distinctly stronger for its weight, and more 
enduring than either species which his blood combines. In 
fact, there is no product of man's industry in relation to 
domesticated animals which is more interesting than this 
singular creature. At present, its use appears to be going 
out of vogue ; the evidence goes to show that the hybrid 
has no place in the affections of mankind, and that it is only 
likely to be kept in its use in tropical countries, and partic- 
ularly in regions where the beasts have to be under the care 
of slaves or other neo^liaent folk. It is a sinofular fact in 
connection with this hybrid, that it is nearly absolutely 
sterile, there being only two or three cases on record in which 
they have proved fecund. It seems, however, possible that if 
these rare instances of continued breeding were to be duly 
used, an intermediate species might be permanently estab- 
lished. This is, indeed, one of the most important lines for 
experiment which could be undertaken by an institution 
devoted to the study of problems relating to domestication. 
It is commonly thought that a mule is a stupider creature 
than the horse ; but I have never found a person, who was well 
acquainted with both animals, who hesitated to place the 
mongrel in the intellectual grade above the pure-blood ani- 
mal. There is, it is true, a decided difference in the mental 
qualities of the two creatures. The mule is relatively unde- 
monstrative, its emotions being sufficiently expressed by an 
occasional bray — a mode of utterance which he has inherited 
from the humbler side of his house in a singularly unchanged 
way. Even in the best humor it appears sullen, and lacks 
7 



98 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

those playful capers which give such expression to the well- 
bred horse, particularly in its youthful state. It is evident, 
however, that it discriminates men and things more clearly 
than does the horse. In oroino- over difficult oround it studies 
its surface, and picks its way so as to secure a footing in an 
almost infallible manner. Even when loaded with a pack, it 
will consider the incumbrance and not so often try to pass 
where the burden will become entangled with fixed objects. 

Mules soon learn the difference between those who have 
the care of them and strangers. It is a well-known fact that 
trouble awaits the wight who unwarily ventures to take from 
the stall a mule which has not the advantage of his acquaint- 
ance. On this account they are rarely stolen. Even in the 
daytime they are often dangerous for strangers to approach, 
and the most of the ill-usage which men receive from their 
heels arises where unwitting people venture to treat them as 
they would horses. Mules are much less liable to panic-fear 
than the most of our domesticated animals, yet, when kept in 
the herded way, they occasionally become stampeded. Many 
a soldier of our Civil War, where mules played a large part in 
the campaigns, doubtless remembers the mad outbreaks of 
these creatures from their corrals, when they went charging 
through the army with a fury which, if directed against an 
enemy, would have been almost as effective as a cavalry 
charge. 

It is interesting to note that mules have a greater dispo- 
sition to adopt a leader in their movements than we note in 
either of the species whence they come. In the old days 
when mules were plentifully bred in Kentucky, and taken 
thence for sale to the plantation States, they went forth in 
droves, commonly under the leadership of a bell horse, or, by 



THE HORSE 99 

preference, a mare, which it was quite the custom to choose 
of a white color. In the course of a few hours the creatures 
would learn to know their guide, and to follow the leader with 
so little trouble that two men could conduct a throng of sev- 
eral hundred. Nevertheless, if the foremost mule of the 
procession turned aside, all the others would blindly follow 
him in the manner of a flock of sheep. 

I recall an amusing instance of this " follow-my-leader " 
motive which occurred many years ago in a way somewhat 
personal to myself, in southern Kentucky. Engaged in sur- 
vey work, I was passing along a quiet road when in the dis- 
tance I heard a thunder of hoofs, and in a moment saw a 
great drove of mules, the appointed leader of which, a man on 
a white horse, had fallen to the rear of the column. The 
creatures, thinking that it was their duty to overtake the miss- 
ing master, were going on the full run. Heeding the shouts 
of the troubled herder, I turned my wagon across the road, 
which, being at that point very narrow, was effectually barri- 
caded by the vehicle. Although the rush was so wild that the 
brutes nearly overset my " outfit," they were brought to a full 
stop. Unhappily, on one side of the road and one hundred 
feet or so from it, there was a comfortably built southern 
house, with a broad gallery extending along the front ; while 
in the door of the mansion were some women who had been 
attracted by the tumult. No sooner had the mob of mules been 
brought to a state of surging quiet, than one of the creatures 
jumped the picket fence, and started for the open house-door, 
thinking, perhaps, that he would find some peace of life in 
what probably seemed to him his accustomed barn. In much 
less time than it takes to tell it, a hundred or more mules 
were on the gallery, the floor of which gave way beneath 



lOO DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

their weight ; they quickly broke down the columns which 
supported the roof, so that the whole structure at once 
became a heap of wood and mules. The unhappy proprietor 
of the drove, in his consternation, forgot even to swear — an 
art which I have never known on any other occasion to pass 
from a mule-driver ; and, sitting on his white horse, he lifted 
his hands like an oriental in prayer, and said to me meekly, 
" Did you ever in all your life ? " I assured him that I had 
never, and went my way, leaving him to settle an interesting 
case of damages with the owner of the mansion. 

In considering the general influence of the horse and its 
kindred forms on human culture, we clearly perceive that we 
are now attaining a time when the machinery of civilization 
is to depend in a much less degree than of old on the help 
which these creatures give to man. Even fifty years ago 
the horse was far more necessary to the work of our kind 
than it is at present. Going back a hundred years, we 
perceive that the population of the civilized world could not 
possibly have been maintained, if by some disease all the 
horses had been swept away. Such a calamity in the year 
1800 would have led to the depopulation of almost all the 
cities of the interior country, famine would have ravaged 
our States, and the whole economic system of society would 
have had to be reconstructed. Now the greater part of the 
work which of old had to be done by horses, can, at a slight 
increase of cost, be effected by mechanical engines. Plough- 
ing, except on steep hillsides and in very stony ground, can 
be cheaply and effectively done by steam. The same agent 
can propel the harvesters and work the threshing machines. 
Even farmers who till fields of no great extent find it 
desirable to do much of their work by steam-engines, for 



THE HORSE lOI 

the reason that fuel is less costly than horse feed. An 
interesting instance to show how far mechanical inventions 
have taken the place of horsed wagons in the work of 
civilized communities was afforded by the horse distemper 
which swept over the country in 1S72. During the week 
or more in which this epidemic was at the worst, the State of 
Massachusetts was practically unhorsed, yet the greater part 
of the necessary business, that required to bring provisions 
to the town, was effected by means of the railways. The 
same incident shows, however, in another way, how absolutely 
necessary this animal is, in certain parts of our work. For 
the great Boston fire, which occurred at that time, was 
doubtless due to the fact that, owing to the sickness of the 
horses, an effort was made to drag the engines by hand- 
power, with the result that they came upon the ground so 
slowly as to give the fire a chance to become an uncontrollable 
conflagration. 

In the present state of our arts there is one great occupa- 
tion which we cannot conceive to be carried on Vv-ithout the 
services of horses. This is war. It is hardly too much to 
say that all our highly elaborated military system has 
depended for its development, as it does for its maintenance, 
on the transportation value of horses. Much has been said 
of late as to the use of bicycles as adjuncts to armies, and in 
a certain limited way they will doubtless prove serviceable in 
future campaigns ; but no one who has had any experience 
of military duty, with its work across tilled fields and 
through forests, can imagine a man on a wheel rendering 
any very effective service except under peculiar conditions. 
Moreover, no ordnance corps can do its appointed work in 
the rear of a line of battle without sending its wagons across 



102 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

country and over ground which no unhorsed vehicle could 
traverse. 

The mark of the old utility of the animal in varied employ- 
ment is retained in our use of the term horse-power in 
measuring the energy of engines. That gauge of strength 
of old determined what man could do in the severest taxes 
upon the forces at his command. In attaining the point 
where, owing to the possession of horses, he could use this 
standard, he won a great way beyond the station of his 
ancestors, who had but the strength of men at their command. 
Modern invention, by giving us heat-engines, has made the 
way for an advance. In another century, or even in another 
generation, the horse may, save for the uses of war, be 
confined to the position of a luxury and an ornament. 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS : BEASTS FOR 
BURDEN, FOOD, AND RAIMENT 

Effect of this Group of Animals on Man. — First Subjugations. — Basis of Domesticability. 
—Horned Cattle. — Wool-bearing Animals. — Sheep and Goats. — Camels ;. their Limi- 
tation. — Elephants : Ancient History ; Distribution ; Intelligence ; Use in the Arts ; 
Need of True Domestication. — Pigs : their Peculiar Economic Value ; Modern 
Varieties ; Mental Qualities. — Relation of the Development of Domesticable Animals 
to the Time of Man's Appearance on the Earth. 

It is not too much to say that the opportunity to go for- 
ward on the paths of culture, at least the chance to advance 
any considerable distance beyond the estate of primitive men, 
depends in a considerable measure upon what the wilderness 
may offer in the way of domesticable beasts of burden. 
Where such exist we find that the folk who dwell with them 
in any land are almost certain to have made great advances. 
Where the surrounding nature, however rich, denies this 
boon, we find that men, however great their natural abilities 
may appear to be, exhibit a retarded development. Thus in 
North America, where there was no domesticable beast of 
burden, the Indians, though an able folk, remain savages. 
So, too, in central and southern Africa, where the mammalian 
life, though rich, affords no large forms which tolerate cap- 
tivity, the people have failed to attain any considerable cul- 
ture. On the other hand, in the great continent of the Old 
World, where the horse, the ass, the buffalo, the camel, and 
the elephant existed in the primitive wilds, men rose swiftly 
toward the civilized station. 



I04 



DOMESTICA TED ANIMALS 



The immediate effect arising from the possession of beasts 
of burden is greatly to enlarge the scope and educative value 
of human labor. A primitive agriculture, sufficient to provide 
for the needs of a people, can be carried on by man's labor 
alone, though the resulting food-supply has generally to be 
supplemented by the chase. Rarely, if ever, are the products 
of the soil thus won sufficient in quantity to be made the basis 




Domesticated Buffaloes in Egypt 



of any commerce. Such conveyance as is necessary among 
the people who are served by their own hands alone, has to 
be accomplished by boat transportation or by the backs of 
men. The immediate effect of usinsf beasts for burden is the 
introduction of some kind of plough, which spares the labor 
of men in delving the ground, and the use of pack animals, 
which, employed in the manner of caravans, greatly promotes 
the extension of trade. A great range of secondary influ- 
ences is found in the development of the arts of war, by which 
people who have become provided with pack or saddle ani- 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 



105 



mals are able to prevail over their savage neighbors, and thus 
to extend the reahii of a nascent civihzation. Yet another 
influence, arising from the domestication of large beasts, 
arises from the fact that these creatures are important store- 
houses of food ; their flesh spares men the labor of the chase, 
and so promotes those regularities of employment v/hich lead 
men into civilized ways of life. In fact, by making these 
creatures captive, men unintentionally brought themselves out 
of their ancient 
savagery. They 
were led into 
systematic and 
forethouo-htful 
courses, and thus 
found a trainingr 
which they could 
in no other way 
have secured. 

The first and 
simplest use made 
of the animals from which man derives strength appears to 
have been brought about by the subjugation of wild cattle — 
the bulls and buffaloes. Several wild varieties of the bovine 
tribe were originally widely disseminated in Europe and 
Asia, and these forms m.ust have been frequent objects 
of chase by the ancient hunters. Although in their adult 
state these animals were doubtless originally intractable, 
the young were mild-mannered, and, as we can readily 
conceive, must often have been led captive to the abodes 
of the primitive people. As is common with all grega- 
rious animals which have long acknowledged the authority 




Cattle of India 



I06 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

of their natural herdsmen, the dominant males of their tribe, 
these creatures lent themselves to domestication. Even the 
first generation of the captives reared by hand probably 
showed a disposition to remain with their masters ; and in a 
few generations this native impulse might well have been so 
far developed that the domestic herd was established, afford- 
ing perhaps at first only flesh and hides, and leading the 
people who made them captives to a nomadic life — that con- 
stant search for fresh fields and pastures new which charac- 
terizes people who are supported by their flocks and herds. 
It is a curious fact that the kindred of the buffaloes and 
bisons differ exceedingly in the measure of their domesticabil- 
ity. Thus, the ordinary buffalo of Asia, though a dull brute, 
is very subjugable, even in the literal sense, for he makes a 
tolerable beast for the plough and bears the yoke with due 
patience. His African kinsman, on the other hand, is perhaps 
the most unconquerable of all the large wild animals. The 
late Sir Samuel Baker, in answer to my question as to what 
wild form was the most to be feared in combat, unhesitat- 
ingly answered, " The African buffalo, the bulls of which 
charge home upon any aggressor with an immediate and 
determined fury, which often enables them to kill the hunter 
after they have been shot through the brain." Our American 
bison, though a much milder-spirited beast, seems also to be 
essentially undomesticable for the reason that he cannot be 
taught to subordinate his desires to the will of man. He can 
readily be brought to the point where he will tolerate captiv- 
ity ; but if, when engaged in ploughing, it occurs to him that 
he needs water, he will straightway go in search of it, not in 
a vicious, but in a perfectly obdurate manner. This quality 
of mind appears to be accountable for the failure of the many 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 1 07 

experiments which have been made to domesticate this inter- 
esting American form. 

The limitations of the domesticating work, the fact that 
as between two kindred species the one has been chosen by 
man and the other left, indicate the truth — which is generally 
of much importance — that the intellectual qualities of animals 
commonly differ more than their frames. This is a part of the 
larger fact that with the advance in organization the individu- 
ality, as regards the whole spiritual field in persons and species 
alike, becomes greater. The culmination of the tendency is 
seen in man, where, with bodies which do not vary much, we 
have an almost infinite range in individual qualities. 

This is perhaps a good place in which to make answer to 
the suggestion that the domesticability of the animal species 
is in inverse proportion to their native courage and indepen- 
dence of mind. The reader will see how fallacious is this 
common notion if he will consider the quality of the supremely 
domesticated creature, the dog. There is probably no beast 
which has a larger share of natural courage and of indepen- 
dent motive. When not under the control of their masters, 
they have perhaps as free a contact with nature as any creat- 
ure in the world ; the same thing may be said of the elephant, 
which, next to the dog, lends himself most obediently to the 
requirements of the master. Owing to the power of his huge 
body and to the ease with which he wins his food, he is in his 
native wilds the least dependent of land animals. Except 
from the assaults of man, he has nothing to fear ; yet when 
enslaved he at once surrenders himself to his captors. In 
general, it may be said that the true gauge of domesticability 
is the sympathetic motive, that strange outgoing spirit which 
leads the mind to recognize the life about it and to accept 



io8 



DOMESTICA TED ANIMALS 



that life as a part of its own. In other words, the domestic- 
ability of man is due to his willingness to enter into social 
relations and rests on the same foundation that supports his 
intercourse with the lower animals he has won to his use. 

It is probable that the first use which was made of beasts 
of burden, in ways in which their strength became useful to 
man, was in packing the tents and other valuables of their 
masters as they moved from place to place. Even to this 
day in certain parts of the world bulls and oxen serve for such 

p u r poses. 
_- " In fact the 

nomadic 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ life, a fash- 
^V p '^r^'^^^^HJ^BIf ^.::.-^j^- -' ion of so- 

ciety which 
is enforced 
w h e r eve r 
people sub- 
sist from 
their cattle 
alone, leads 
inevi tably 

to such use of the beasts. In the southern Appalachian 
district of this country there remain traces of this service 
rendered by bulls and oxen. These creatures, provided with 
a kind of pack saddle, are occasionally used in conveying the 
dried roots of the ginseng, beeswax, feathers, and the peltries 
which are gathered by the inhabitants of remote districts, not 
accessible to carriages, to the markets of the outer world. 
All the varieties of ordinary cattle could be made to serve as 
burden-carriers, and they doubtless would be continued to be 




Indian Bullock and VVater-Ca 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 



109 



used for saddle purposes in one way or another but for the 
wide use of the horse, a creature very much better adapted for 
carrying weight. The cloven foot of the bulls and buffaloes 
gives a weakness to the extremities which will quickly lead to 
disease in case they are forced to carry heavy loads such as 
the horse or ass may safely bear. 

The help which our bovine servants aftord us by the 
power which they exert in traction, as in drawing ploughs, 
sleds, or wagons, 
appears to have 
been first rendered 
long after their in- 
troduction to the 
waysofm.an. The 
first of these uses 
in which the draw- 
ins^ strenorth of 
these animals was 
made serviceable 
appears to have 

been in the w^ork of ploughing. In primitive days and 
with primitive tools, hand delving was a sore task. The 
inventive genius who first contrived to overturn the earth 
by means of the forked limb of a tree, shaped in the sem- 
blance of a plough and drawn by oxen, began a great revo- 
lution in the art of agriculture. To this unknown genius 
we may award a place among the benefactors of man- 
kind, quite as distinguished as that which is occupied by 
the equally unknown inventors of the arts of making fire 
or of smelting ores. After the experience with the strength 
of oxen had been won from the work of ploughing, it was easy 




• v.Nfor, 



Ploughing in Syria 



no DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

to pass to the other grades of their employment, where they 
were made to draw carriages. 

Next after the contribution which the kindred of the bulls 
have made by their strength, we must set that which has come 
from their milk. Although this substance can be obtained in 
small quantities from several other domesticated animals, the 
species of the genus Bos alone have yielded it in sufficient 
quantities greatly to affect the development of man. It is 
difficult to measure the importance of the addition to the diet, 
both of savage and civilized peoples, which milk affords. It 
is a fact well known to physiologists that in its simple form 
this substance is a complete food, capable when taken alone of 
sustaining life and insuring a full development of the body. It 
is indeed a natural contrivance exactly adapted to afford those 
materials which are required for the development and restora- 
tion of creatures essentially akin to our own species. Those 
races which avail themselves extensively of it in their dietary 
are the strongest and most enduring the world has known. 
The Aryan folk are indeed characteristically drinkers of milk 
and users of its products, cheese and butter. It may well be 
that their power is in some measure due to this resource. 

In our horned cattle man won to domestication creatures 
which were admirably suited to promote his advancement 
from savagery to civilization. Indeed, the possession of these 
animals appears to have been a prime condition of his ad- 
vancement. With them, however, as with the camel, there 
came little in the way of those sympathetic qualities which 
have made it possible for our race to establish affectionate 
relations with other captive forms. Long intercourse with 
man has, it is true, somewhat diminished the wildness of these 
creatures, though the males remain the most indomitably fero- 





\9p 



^ 



.y 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS II3 

cious of all our servants. The truth seems to be that the 
bovine animals have but little intellectual capacity, and it has 
in no wise served the purposes of man to develop such powers 
of mind as they have. We have ever been given to askin<^ 
little of them, save docility. This we have in a high measure 
won with our milch cows, which of all our domesticated creat- 
ures are perhaps the most absolutely submissive ; the more 
highly developed of them being little more than passive pro- 
ducers of milk, almost without a trace of instincts or emotions 
except such as pertain to reproduction and to feeding. It is 
a noteworthy fact that in all the great literature of anecdote 
concerning our domesticated animals, there is hardly a trace 
of stories which tend to show the existence of sagacity in our 
common cattle. 

It is evident that the variability of our domesticated 
bovines, as far as their bodies are concerned, is very great. 
Between the ancient aurochs and the more highly cultivated 
of its descendants, the difference is as great as that which 
separates any other of our captive animals from their wild 
ancestors. In size, shape, in flesh- and milk-giving qualities, 
the departure from the old form of the wilderness is remark- 
able. Moreover, at the present time these diverse breeds of 
horned cattle are rapidly being multiplied, the distinctive 
forms probably being twice as numerous as they were at the 
beginning of the present century. The process of selection 
has led to some very wide diversifications of the body. The 
horns, which in the wild state are invariably well developed, 
and which in the cattle of our Western plains attain very great 
size, have in certain breeds altogether disappeared, and in 
their place there sometimes comes a remarkable crest of 
bony matter which does not project beyond the skin which 

8 



114 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



covers the head. If such differences occurred in the wild 
state, they would be regarded as separating the two types of 
animals widely from each other. 

In treating the wool-bearing animals along with beasts of 
burden, we make a somewhat fanciful classification which yet 
is not quite without reason. By long training- man has 





Egyptian Sheep 



brought these species to the state where their covering of 
wool or hair, once a coating only sufficient to afford pro- 
tection from the weather, has become a very serious load.. 
In certain of our highly developed varieties the annual coat 
is so far increased that the creature loses a large part of its 
bulk after the shearer has done his work. Each year's fleece 
often amounts in weight to eight to twelve pounds, and in its 
lifetime the animal may yield a mass of wool far exceeding its 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 1 15 

weight of flesh and bones in any time of its life. When the 
fleece is mature the animal is often burdened with a load 
about as heavy in proportion to his size as is a horse by the 
weight of its rider and accoutrements. 

As a flesh producer, particularly in sterile fields, sheep are 
more valuable than our horned cattle. They mature more 
rapidly, attaining their adult size and reproducing their kind 
in less than two years, so that in many parts of the world it 
is possible to obtain a larger quantity of flesh from poor pas- 
turages with sheep than with any other of our domesticated 
animals. Their principal value, however, has been from the 
means they afforded whereby men in high latitudes have 
obtained warm clothino-. Before the domestication of these 
creatures, peoples who had to endure the winter of high lati- 
tudes were forced to rely upon hides for covering— a form of 
clothing which is clumsy, uncleanly, and which the chase 
could not supply in any considerable quantity. Owing to its 
peculiar structure, the hair of the sheep makes the strongest 
and warmest covering, when rendered into cloth, which has 
ever been devised for the use of man. The value of this con- 
tribution is directly related to the conditions of climate. In 
the intertropical regions the sheep plays no part of impor- 
tance. In high latitudes it is of the utmost value to man. 
No other of our domesticated creatures, except the camel, is 
so specially adapted to the needs which peculiarities of climate 
impose upon their possessors. 

The relations of the goat to mankind are in certain ways 
peculiar. The creature has long been subjugated, probably 
having come into the human family before the dawn of his- 
tory. It has been almost as widely disseminated, among bar- 
barian and civilized peoples alike, as the sheep. It readily 



ii6 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



cleaves to the household, and exhibits much more intelligence 
than the other members of our flocks and herds. It yields 
good milk, the flesh is edible, though in the old animals not 




Bedouin Goat-Herd — Palestine 



savory, and the hair can be made to vary in a larger measure 
than any of our animals which are shorn. Yet this creature 
has never obtained the place in relation to man to which it 
seems entitled. Only here and there is it kept in consider- 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 1 17 

able numbers or made the basis of extensive industries. The 
reason for this seems to be that these animals cannot readily 
be kept in flocks in the manner of sheep. They are only 
partly gregarious, and tend to stray from the owner's keeping. 
There seems reason also to believe that they cannot easily 
be made to vary in other characteristics except their hairy 
coverino- at the will of the breeder, and so varieties cannot be 
formed, as is the case with sheep, to suit each peculiarity of 
soil and climate. Thus in Europe, where it would be easy to 
name a score of distinct breeds of sheep, each peculiarly well 
suited to the conditions of the country where it had been 
developed, the goats are singularly alike. The original stock 
of these creatures appears to have been adapted to feeding 
on the scant herbage which develops in rocky and moun- 
tainous countries. They do not seem able to make the perfect 
use of the resources of a pasture which sheep do. These 
inherited peculiarities in feeding enable them to pick up a 
subsistence where they may range over a considerable ter- 
ritory, even where it seems to afford no forms of food for the 
hungriest animal. Thus in that part of the city of New York 
known as " Shanty town," goats may be seen in fairly good 
condition, although the sole source of food, besides a few 
stray weeds, appears to be the paste of the paper advertise- 
ments which they pick from the rocks and fences. 

Although goats appear to be characterized by invariable 
bodies, our sheep are, in physical characteristics, among the 
most flexible of our domesticated animals. They may by 
selection readily and rapidly be made to vary as regards the 
character of their wool, the size and proportion of their 
muscles, and the quantity and placing of the fat. In all these 
features they may be fairly blown to and fro by the wind of 



Il8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

favor. Between the meagre-bodied merino, with its skeleton- 
like frame and heavily wrinkled skin bearing a vast burden 
of long wool, and the heavy Hampshire-downs or South- 
downs, there is really an immense difference in bodily quality; 
yet these variations represent only a century or two of care- 
ful experiment on the part of the breeders. It seems not 
improbable that in the present state of this developing art it 
would be possible, in a hundred years, to reverse the con- 
ditions of these two varieties. 

Sheep and goats, like the other herbivorous species which 
are the common tenants of our fields and forests, belong to 
the great class of dull-witted mammals in which the intellec- 
tual processes appear to be almost altogether limited to 
ancient and simple emotions, such as are inspired by fear 
or hunger. They are characterized by little individuality of 
mind, and althoucrh the needs of men have not led to anv 
experiment in developing their wits, as in the case of dogs, 
there is no reason to believe that they afford much founda- 
tion for such essays. The present rapid variations in the 
physical characteristics of our sheep which are induced by the 
breeder's skill, make it evident that we are far from having 
attained the maximum profit from these creatures. The 
goats also give promise, when selective work is carefully 
done upon them, of giving much more than they now afford 
to the uses of mankind ; but from neither of these forms is 
there reason to hope, at least on our present lines of experi- 
ment, for any considerable gain in the intellectual qualities. 

We have already noted the fact that the sheep is espe- 
cially adapted to serve man in high latitudes, where he has 
to provide against the winter's cold. The camel is an even 
more striking instance in which the value of the creature 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 



119 



depends upon climatal peculiarities. It is peculiarly fitted, 
by its ancestral training and development, for the use of men 
who dwell in arid countries. In the olden days of the 
later Tertiary epoch, creatures akin to the camels appear to 
have been widely distributed, and were probably adapted to 
considerable variations of environment. Within the time of 
which we know something by history, these forms have been 




The Great Caravan Road — Central Asia 



limited to the arid districts of southwestern Asia and northern 
Africa. It is not certain that we know the originally wild 
form of either of the two species, the double-humped or 
single-humped camels. Wild members of each exist, but they 
may be the descendants of the domesticated forms. It seems 
probable that long before the building of the Pyramids the 
people of the deserts had learned how to profit from the very 
peculiar qualities of this strangely provided beast, which in 
several distinct ways is singularly fitted to serve the needs of 



I20 DOAIESTICATED AJVIMALS 

man in arid lands. The large and well-padded foot of this 
creature is well adapted for treading a surface unsoftened by 
vegetation. Its peculiar stomach enables it to store water in 
such a manner that it can go for days without drink. In the 
humps upon its back, as in natural pack-saddles, it may 
harvest a share of the nutriment which it obtains from occa- 
sional good pasturages, the store being laid away in the form 
of fat which may return to the blood when the creature would 
otherwise starve. So important have these peculiarities been 
found by men who have domesticated the camel, that on them 
have rested many of the most interesting features of race 
development in the history of our kind. In the territories 
along the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean, 
and in a large part of southern and central Asia, the camel 
has done service to man which elsewhere has been performed 
by sheep, cattle, and horses. In those parts of the world the 
share which these domesticated animals have had in the 
development of man has been relatively small. The camel 
has given the strength for burdens, hair for clothing, and 
often flesh to the needy men of the desert. 

Although long a captive, and for ages, perhaps, the most 
serviceable of all the creatures which man has won from the 
wilds, the camel is still only partly domesticated, having never 
acquired even the small measure of affection for his master 
which we find in the other herbivorous animals which have 
been won to the service of man. The obedience which he 
renders is but a dull submission to inevitable toil. The intel- 
ligence which he shows is very limited, and, so far as I can 
judge from the accounts of those who have observed him, 
there is but little variation in his mental qualities. As a 
whole, the creature appears to be innately the dullest and 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 



12 



least improvable of all our servitors. The fact is, this animal 
belongs to an ancient and lowly type of mammals character- 
ized by relatively small brains, and therefore of weak intelli- 
gence ; but, for its singular serviceableness in drought-ridden 




j:j:. rtyi^ 



Camels Feeding 



countries, it would probably have been hunted off the earth 
by the early men, as have been many other remnants of the 
ancient life. 

It is somewhat characteristic of the older forms of animals, 
those which took shape in the earlier Tertiary periods, that 
they are less variable than those which acquired their char- 
acteristics in times nearer our own. It is a fact well known 
to the students of paleontology, that species and genera 



124 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

which have been long on the earth are apt to become in a 
way rigid as regards their quahties of body and mind. It is 
an interesting fact that, although the camel can readily be 
transplanted to many other parts of the world, where the 
physiographic conditions are similar to those of the realm 
where he has served man so well, he has never been thor- 
oughly successful except in the regions where he has been 
in use for ages. In the desert regions of the Cordilleras of 
America, in South Africa, and in Australia, various experi- 
ments go to show that the creature could be perfectly recon- 
ciled to its environm.ent. Many years ago a lot of camels 
were brought to the valley of the Rio Grande with a view to 
their utilization in that region, which closely resembles the 
desert countries about the Mediterranean. These animals were 
thoroughly successful in meeting the climatal conditions of 
the region. They proved as strong and as fertile as in their 
natural realms. Although it is said they survive to the present 
day, they have never been of any service to the people. 

Although, as before noted, the camel has a certain value 
for other purposes than conveying burdens, these subsidiary 
uses are so far limited that the creature is not likely to retain 
a place in the world after his service in caravans is no longer 
called for. The rapid recivilization of northern Africa, lead- 
ing as it does to the development of a railway system in that 
region, promises to displace this creature from his most trod- 
den ways. It seems likely that the other portions of the 
desert lands in the old world will soon be brought under the 
same civilizing influences, the nomadic tribes reduced to a 
stationary habit of life, and the commerce effected in the 
modern manner. When this change is brought about, this 
old-time animal, which but for the care of man would have 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 



127 



probably long since passed away, will be likely, save so far 
as it may be preserved through motives of scientific interest, 
to join the great array of vanished species. 

It affords a pleasant contrast to turn from the consid- 
eration of the camels to a study of the elephants. The 
difference in the measure of attractiveness of the two forms 
is very great, and depends upon facts of remarkable interest. 




Camels along the Sea at Twilight 



Unlike the camel — which, as we have seen, is the last survivor 
of an ancient lineage, represented by but two species, and 
these limited to a small part of the world — the elephant, at 
the time when man appears to have taken shape, seems to 
have existed on all the continental lands except Australia, 
and to have been in a state of singular prosperity. As is 
often the case with other vigorous genera of mammals, the 
species were adapted to a very great variety of climates, and 
were fitted to endure tropic heat as well as arctic cold. 
The group of elephants is first known to us in the early 



128 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

part of Tertiary time. From its first appearance on our stage 
it seems to have been successful in a high measure, and this 
probably by reason of its possession of the remarkable inven- 
tion of the trunk — a prolonged and marvellously flexible nose 
which serves in the manner of an arm and hand for gathering 
food. 

When we first find traces of mankind in the records of the 
rocks, in what appears to be an age just anterior to the Glacial 
epoch, the elephant had passed the experimental stages of its 
development and was firmly established as the king of beasts. 
In his adult form he had nothing to fear from any of the lower 
animals, and by the organization of herds it Is probable that 
even the young were tolerably safe from assault. Until the 
early races of men had attained a considerable skill in the use 
of weapons, the great beasts were probably safe from human 
attack. We may well believe that primitive savages shunned 
them as unconquerable. As early, perhaps, as the closing 
stages of the Glacial epoch in Europe, we find evidences 
which pretty clearly show that the folk of that land, probably 
belonging to some race other than our own, had attained a 
state of the warlike arts in which they could venture to hunt 
this creature. 

The species of elephant which was hunted by the early 
men of Europe, and perhaps also by those in Asia and Amer- 
ica as well, was a greater and, at least in appearance, a more 
formidable monster than the living species of Asia or Africa. 
He was on the average taller and probably bulkier than any 
of his livinof kindred. The tusks were lar^e and curved in a 
curious scimitar form. Adding to the might of its aspect was 
a vast covering of hair, which on the neck appears to have 
had the form of a mane. This covering must have greatly 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS I 29 

increased the apparent size of the creature, which no doubt 
appeared about twice as large as any of our modern elephants 
which are nearly hairless. Although the perils of this ancient 
chase must have been great, the triumphs were equally so, and 
to a people who lived by hunting, most profitable ; a single 
animal would furnish more food than scores of the lesser 
beasts such as the reindeer. 

It seems probable that the ancient northern elephant con- 
tinued in existence in North America down to the time when 
this continent was inhabited by man. It can hardly be 
doubted that the very ancient human beings, whose remains 
are preserved to us beneath the lava streams of California, 
dwelt on the continent along with the mammoth. In excava- 
tions which I have made at Big Bone Lick in Kentucky, 
where a group of saline springs emerges at the bottom of a 
valley, there were disclosed a very great number of skeletons 
of this great elephant, commingled with the bones of one or 
two smaller forms of the related genus, the mastodon. At a 
slightly higher level was the multitude of remains belonging 
to an extinct species of bison which came just before our 
so-called buffalo, while near the surface of the ground was 
found the waste of the creatures which were in the field when 
it was first seen by the white men. A very careful search 
failed to reveal any trace of man until the uppermost level was 
attained. The facts, which cannot well be discussed here, 
have led me to the conclusion that only a few thousand years 
can have elapsed since the mammoth and the mastodon plen- 
tifully abounded in North America ; but I am forced to doubt 
whether our savages were here in time to make acquaintance 
with these animals. 

It is not certain that the extermination of the ereat north- 
9 



I30 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

ern elephant or mammoth even in the Old World came about 
through the action of man. It is possible that the death was 
clue to more natural causes, such as the change of climate 
which attended the decline of the Glacial period, or to the 
attacks of some insect enemy like the tsetze fly of South 
Africa, which occasionally brings destruction to cattle in that 
part of the world. On the whole, however, it seems most 
probable that the extermination of this noble beast is to be 
accounted among the brutal triumphs of mankind, perhaps as 
the first of the long tale of destructions which he has inflicted 
upon his .fellow-creatures. However this may be, it is clear 
that at the dawn of civilization the species of the genus 
elephas had become limited to that part of the African conti- 
nent which lies south of the Sahara, and to the portion of 
Asia east of the Persian Gulf and south of China. The rem- 
nant consisted of two species : the African form, on the aver- 
age the larger of the two, a fierce and scarcely domesticable 
creature ; and the Asiatic, a milder-natured species which alone 
has been to any extent brought into the service of man. 

It is not certain when or where elephants were first reduced 
to domestication. In the dawn of history we find them used 
to enhance the state of princes and for the purposes of war. 
It seems possible that in this early day the African as well as 
the Asiatic species was tamed, at least to the point where 
they could be made to serve in battle. We can hardly 
believe that all these animals which were at the command of 
Hannibal and the other generals of North Africa, came from 
the Asiatic realm. The fact that in modern times the species 
which dwells south of the Sahara has not been turned to the 
uses of man, may be accounted for by the lowly estate of the 
native people in that part of the world, and the lack of need 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 131 

for such creatures in the economic conditions of/the Aryafi^-., 
folk who have settled along the shores and in the southern y 
part of that continent. 

The relations of man to the elephant are more peculiar 
than those which he has formed with any other domesticated 
animal. Although the creature will breed in captivity, its 
reproduction in that state is exceptional, and it is\mny years 
before the offspring are fit for any service. It is indee^about 
thirty years before the creature is sufficiently adult to ai.tain 
a eood measure of streno^th and endurance. It has therefore 
been the habit of the people who avail themselves of this 
admirable beast to use the captures which they make in the 
wilderness. It is a most interesting and exceptional fact that 
these captive elephants, though bred in perfect freedom and 
provided with none of those inherited instincts so essentially 
a part of the value of our other domesticated quadrupeds, 
become helpful to man and attached to him in a way which is 
characteristic of none other of our ancient companions except 
the dog. It is safe to say that the Asiatic elephant is the 
most innately domesticable, and the best fitted by nature for 
companionship with man, of all our great quadrupeds. The 
qualities of mind which in our other domesticated quadrupeds 
have been slowly developed by thousands of years of selection 
and intercourse with our kind, are in this creature a part of its 
wild estate. 

It appears from trustworthy anecdotes that the Asiatic 
elephants in a few months of captivity acquire the rules of 
conduct which it is necessary to impose upon them. The 
speediness of this intellectual subjugation maybe judged from 
the fact that, after a short term of domestication, they will 
take a willing and intelligent part in capturing their kindred 



132 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

of the wilderness, showing in this work little or no disposition 
to rejoin the wild herds. In the case of no other animal do 
we find anything like such an immediate adhesion to the ways 
of civilization. We have to account for this eminent peculi- 
arity of the elephant on the supposition, which appears to be 
thoroughly justified, that the creature has, even in its wild 
state, a type of intelligence and instincts more nearly like 
those of men than is the case with any other wild mammal, an 
affinity with human quality which is. perhaps, only approached 
by certain species of birds. It appears from the observations 
of naturalists that the family or tribe of wild elephants is a 
distinct and highly sympathetic community. The grade and 
value of the friendly feeling which prevails among them may 
be judged by the fact that, when one of the males becomes 
lost or is driven away from its associates, it does not seem to 
be able to join any other tribe, but becomes a " rogue," or 
solitary individual, and in this state develops a morose and 
furious temper. 

There are many well-attested stories which serve to show 
that wild elephants have a kind of intelligence which indicates 
a certain constructive capacity. Of these, perhaps the best 
are the instances in which the creatures have been caught in 
pitfalls, made by digging a hole in the paths of the wilderness 
which they are accustomed to follow, the surface being cov- 
ered with a frail platform so arranged as to conceal the exca- 
vation. When one of a tribe is caught in the trap, the others, 
if time allows before the hunters come to the ground, will in 
an ingenious way release him. I doubt if the most practicable 
manner of effecting this will occur at once to the reader. The 
easiest plan may seem to drag the captive from the pit by 
sheer strength, but as the hole is deep and has vertical sides, 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 133 

the elephants contrive a better way. They bring bits of 
timber, which they throw into the pitfall, the captive treads 
them clown until he is elevated to a position whence he can 
escape from his prison. 

The intelligence of the wild elephant is probably in good 
part to be accounted for by the fact that the creature possesses 
in its trunk an instrument which is admirably contrived to exe- 
cute the behests of an intelligent will. It is easy for us to see 
how, in the case of man, the hands have served to develop the 
intelligence by providing him with means whereby he could 
do a great variety of things which demanded thought and 
afforded education. The elephant is the only large mammal 
which has ever acquired a serviceable addition to the body 
such as the trunk affords. In their ordinary life the trunk 
does almost as varied work as the human arm. With it they 
can express emotions in a remarkable way ; they caress their 
young, gather their food by a great variety of movements, or 
defend themselves from assailants. To the naturalist who 
has come to perceive the close relations between bodily struct- 
ure and mental endowments, it is not surprising to find that 
these creatures have attained a quality of mind which is 
found nowhere else among the mammals except in man and 
in some of his kindred, the apes. 

The most peculiar mental quality of the elephant, a feature 
which separates him even from the dog, is the rational way 
in which he will do certain kinds of mechanical work. He 
appears to have an immediate sense as to the effects of his 
actions, which we find elsewhere only among human beings. 
From a great body of well-attested observations, showing 
what may be called the logical quality of the mind of these 
creatures, I may be allowed to select a few stories which have 



134 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



a singular denotative value. An acquaintance of mine, a 
British officer who had served long in India, told me that in 
taking artillery over very difficult roads, certain of the abler 
elephants could be trusted to walk behind each piece, where 




An Indian Elephant 

they would in a fashion control its movements, steadying or 
lifting it as the occasion demanded without any directions 
from the driver. 

Elephants can be trained to pile up sticks of timber, such 
as railway ties, placing the layers alternately in opposite 
directions, as is the custom in such work. There is an excel- 
lent and well-attested story of an elephant who, without a 
driver, was bearinof a stick of timber throuo-h a narrow wood 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 135 

path. Meeting a man on horseback, and perceiving that the 
way was not wide enough for both himself and the oncomer, 
the sagacious animal deliberately backed his huge body into 
the chaparral so as to clear the way, and then trumpeted as if 
to signal the horseman that the path was free. 

The emotions as well as the intelligence of elephants are 
singularly like those of human kind. It is said by those who 
know them well that if when in their stubborn fits they are 
brutally overborne, they are apt to die of what seems to be 
pure chagrin. Their states of grief, despair, and rage much 
resemble those which are exhibited by violent children or men 
unaccustomed to control. Their affections and animosities 
have also a curious human cast. They readily form attach- 
ments which appear to be quite as enduring as those exhib- 
ited by dogs, and their memory of injuries remains quick for 
years after they have received the harm. Well-verified anec- 
dotes showing the likeness of these emotional qualities to 
our own exist in such numbers that it would be easy to fill 
a volume with them. They are, however, not necessary to 
show the likeness of the creature to ourselves. This is suffi- 
ciently exhibited by their daily behavior under domestication. 
In noting this we should remember that the male elephant is 
the only large mammal the males of which it has proved safe 
to use in the ordinary work of life. Even our bulls and stall- 
ions, though they belong to species which have been domesti- 
cated for thousands of years, are so violent and untrustworthy 
as to be of little value except for breeding purposes. Bulls, 
even of the tamer breeds, are a constant menace to the lives 
of their masters ; yet an adult male elephant recently made 
captive may, except when seriously diseased, be trusted to 
obey the mere signals of the driver, who has no such control 



136 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

over him as the bit affords in the case of horses. The creat- 
ure has the strength to overcome all control save that of a 
moral nature. To this he submits in a way which is only 
equalled by our well-bred dogs. 

As yet the utility of the elephant to man has, measured by 
his qualities, been but small. The creature has a marvellous 
strength, great intelligence, and remarkable docility. In pro- 
portion to the power which he can apply to a task, he is not 
an expensive animal to maintain. He can endure a consider- 
able range of climate, and enjoys a tolerable immunity from 
disease. The reason for the relatively inconsiderable use of 
these creatures is probably to be found in the fact that they 
are not adapted for ordinary draught purposes, nor are they 
well suited to the needs of the caravan, for which the camel 
or the pack-mule is much better fitted. In ancient warfare, 
before the invention of gunpowder, elephants carrying archers 
or javelin-men upon their backs were greatly valued for the 
effect of their charge against an enemy and for the fright with 
which they inspired horses. Against the unsteady ranks of 
Oriental armies they were often most efficient in breaking 
a line of battle. Even the Roman troops, when they first 
encountered them and before they knew how to meet their 
charges, found them very formidable. It was soon learned 
that if their onset was stoutly resisted, they were likely to 
become unmanageable in the uproar of the fight, and to do 
as much damagfe to friends as to foes. It is onlv in certain 
peculiar tasks that, in modern days, the elephants have any 
economic value, and in the most of this work their strength 
is likely to be replaced by various engines. 

The two existing species of elephants are, as before re- 
marked, the survivors of a long lineage, represented in the 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 137 

geological record by the remains of many extinct forms. 
Some of these lost species were far smaller than those of 
to-day ; one at least was no larger than our heavier horses. 
If by the breeder's art the existing varieties could be caused 
so to change as to give us once again this relatively diminu- 
tive form, the creature would be sure to find a place of im- 
portance in our ordinary arts. The trouble is that the very 
long life of this animal is naturally associated with a slow 
growth. It requires indeed almost the lifetime of a genera- 
tion to bring the individual to an adult age. It is therefore 
not surprising that, as the wild forms can readily be won to 
domestication, these creatures have not been the subject of 
any of those interesting processes of selection which have 
so far affected for the better the characteristics of nearly 
all the other domesticated animals. 

In every other regard than those mentioned above, the 
elephant appears to be an excellent subject for improvement 
by choice in breeding. The individuals vary much as regards 
their physical and mental qualities. Probably no other wild 
mammal exhibits such differences in the mental features as 
does this highly intellectual creature. The physical individu- 
ality does not seem to be as striking as the mental, but even 
here we note a range, at least as regards size, which is un- 
usual in the wild forms bred under similar conditions. The 
general elasticity of the group Is shown by the considerable 
differences which may be traced in the herds which occupy 
different parts of the field over which the species range. As 
yet these local peculiarities have not been carefully studied ; 
but from an examination of the tusks In the ivory warehouse 
at the docks in London, I have found that those shipped from 
particular ports in Africa and Asia differed both in form and 



138 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

texture, so that the experts were able to tell from which dis- 
trict they came. The evidence, in a word, appears to show 
that the creature tends to vary ; and it is a safe presumption 
that the forms would prove as responsive to the breeder's art 
as those of our horses, cattle, sheep, or dogs. 

As a whole, the elephant has been almost as little associ- 
ated with the life of our own race as the camel. Neither of 
these creatures has ever played any considerable part in 
European affairs. From the disappearance of the last of the 
mammoths in the closing stages of the Glacial time until the 
invasions of Italy by Pyrrhus and by Hannibal, elephants 
were practically unknown in Western Europe. They have 
never been used in peaceful occupations on that continent, 
and have had only a trifling place in its military arts. It was 
probably due to this separation of our eminently experimental 
race from the realm of the elephants that no efforts have 
been made systematically to breed them in captivity, and 
thus to win varieties in which the form might become better 
adapted to economic needs, and the remarkable mental 
powers of the creature be brought to their utmost develop- 
ment. As yet the only Europeans who have had much to do 
with elephants are the British, who in their civil and military 
service in India have been thrown in contact with these ani- 
mals. Generally, however, these people have been only tem- 
porarily domiciled in Asia, and probably on this account have 
not become interested in the problems which this noble beast 
presents to all those who appreciate the animal world. We 
lack, indeed, the observations which might have been made 
with admirable effect by British observers in India during 
the two centuries in which that people has had to do with 
the lands in which elephants abound. 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 139 

The elephant of Africa Is still a tolerably abundant animal. 
Its numbers, though doubtless diminished by more than one- 
half within this century, are probably to be counted by the 
hundred thousand. Nevertheless, in less than a hundred 
years the field which they occupied has been greatly reduced ; 
and between the ivory hunter and the sportsman of our 
brutal race armed with guns of ever-increasing deadliness, it 
will certainly not require another century of free shooting to 
annihilate the African species. In view of the present con- 
dition of the life of these noble beasts, it seems in a high 
measure desirable that a thorough-going effort should be 
made to extend the domestication to the point where the 
form will not only be won from the wilds, but will be a 
permanent element in our civilization, in the manner of our 
common flocks and herds. It will be an enduring shame if, 
by neglect of our opportunities, the utmost is not done to 
attain this end. It appears fit that this task should be under- 
taken by the British Government, which In modern days has 
displayed a skill and forethought In the administration of 
Its Indian provinces unexampled In the history of colonies. 
Owing to the slow breeding-rate of the elephant, it may 
require more than a century for experiments to attain any 
definite result, so that the task is clearly beyond the limits of 
individual endeavor. 

7^ Among the humbler helpers of man, the pig holds an 
Important place. He has had no small share in the better- 
ment of the estate of his masters. One of the large questions 
which beset men in their unconscious endeavors to lay the 
foundations of civilization was that of food-supply. No 
sooner does a population become sedentary than the wilder- 
nesses about Its dwelling-place are rapidly cleared of the large 



140 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

game, so that the chase affords but Httle save amusement. 
Therefore a provision in the way of meat has to be obtained 
from domesticated animals. The flocks and herds supply this 
need, though in a costly way. Sheep have a value for their 
wool ; horned cattle develop slowly, and are, moreover valu- 
able, the oxen for their strength and the cows for their milk. 
Horses are too valuable to be used for food, save in times of 
exceeding stress ; and none but the lowest savages are willing 
to send their faithful dogs to the pot. From the beginning 
of his experience with man the pig has been found the cheap- 
est and most serviceable domesticated animal as a source of 
food-supply. 

We can trace the origin of our dom.esticated pigs more 
clearly than in the case of the most of the other subjugated 
animals. The creature is evidently descended from the wild 
boar of Europe and Asia ; and though long under domestica- 
tion and greatly varied from its primitive stock, it readily 
reverts to something like its original form when allowed to 
betake itself once more to the wilds. The domestication of 
the species appears to have been accomplished at several 
different points in Asia and Europe. The forms which are 
found in eastern Asia differ from those which are kept in the 
western portion of the great continent, and may have their 
blood commingled with that of another species which is native 
in that part of the world. 

Among our domesticated animals the pig is exceptional in 
the fact that it has been bred for its flesh alone ; for although 
the hide is valuable and the hair serves certain purposes, as in 
the manufacture of brushes, these uses are only incidental and 
modern. They have not affected the plan of the breeder, 
whose aim has been to produce the largest weight of flesh in 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 141 

the shortest time, and with the least expenditure of food. In 
this peculiar task the success has been remarkable, the creat- 
ure having been made to vary from its primitive condition 
in an extraordinary manner. In its wild state the species 
develops slowly, requiring, perhaps, three or four years to 
attain its maximum size. It never becomes very fat, but re- 
mains an agile, swift-footed, and fierce tenant of the wilds. 
Under the conditions of subjugation the pig has been brought 
to a state in which its qualities of mind and body have under- 
gone a very great change. In the more developed breeds, 
even the males, when kept about the barnyard, are quiet- 
natured and not at all dangerous. The creatures have become 
slow-moving ; they attain their full development in about half 
the time required for the growth of their wild kindred, and 
when adult they may outweigh them in the ratio of four 
to one. 

The effect arising from the food-supply which our pigs 
afford is well seen in the use which is made of their flesh in 
all the ruder work of men, at least in the case of those of our 
race. Our soldiers and sailors are to a great extent fed on 
the flesh of these creatures, which lends itself readily to pres- 
ervation by the use of salt. So rapidly can these animals be 
bred, owing to the number of young which they produce in a 
litter and the swiftness of their growth, that sudden demands 
for an increase in the supply, such as occurred at the out- 
break of our civil war, can quickly be met. If the need should 
arise, the quantity of pork produced in this country could 
readily be doubled within eighteen months. This is the case 
with no other source of flesh-supply, and this fact gives the 
pig a peculiar importance. 

Owing to the remarkably complete domestication of this 



142 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

animal, and also to the fact that it is omnivorous, the creature 
has ever been a favorite with the cotter class. Those folk, 
who can afford neither sheep nor horned cattle, can often pro- 
vide the food for pigs, and thus, in turn, be much better fed 
than they would otherwise be. 

It is only within two centuries that our pigs have attained 
to anything like the domestication in which we commonly find 
them. Of old they were allowed to range the forests, much 
as they do in certain parts of our Southern States at the 
present day. In some parts of Europe, particularly in the 
southern portion of the continent, this method of rearing and 
feeding is still common. It was and is advantageous, for the 
reason that the creature, by its remarkably keen sense of 
smelling and its singular capacity for overturning the ground, 
is able to provide itself with abundant food in the way of 
grubs and roots which are not at the disposition of any other 
animal. It was only as the public forests disappeared that 
pigs came to receive any considerable part of their provender 
from the products of tilled fields. In this stage of our agricul- 
ture, when all the land was possessed, the life of the pig was 
necessarily more restricted, and he became the denizen of a 
pen. In the earlier state there was no cost for his keeping; 
in the latter, except so far as he could be fed from the waste 
of a household, he is an expensive animal. 

It is with this last state of the pig, when he became the 
most housed of our domesticated animals, that the work of the 
breeder really began. The aim of those who have developed 
the pig has been, as we have said, to obtain the most rapid 
"■rowth alonof with the o-reatest weight of fat, and to accom- 
plish the results with the least expenditure in the way of food. 
Although the animal has been subjected to selective experi- 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 143 

ments, looking to these ends, for not more than a century, 
or say about forty generations of the species, the amount of 
variation which has been attained is singularly great, the form 
and habits having been changed more rapidly, and in a larger 
measure, than in the case of any other of our domesticated 
animals. It may fairly be said that this creature is more obe- 
dient to the will of the practical selectionist than any other 
with which we have experimented. 

It is commonly assumed that our pigs are among the least 
intelligent of the creatures which man has turned to his use. 
This impression is due to the fact that the conditions in which 
these animals are kept insure their degradation by cutting 
them off fram all the natural mental trainino- which wild ani- 
mals, as well as the other tenants of the fields, receive. In the 
state of nature or in the condition of domestication which 
existed before pigs became captives in their pens, they were 
among the most alert and sagacious animals with which man 
has come in contact. Their wits were quick and their sympa- 
thies with their kind remarkably strong. Trainers have found 
these creatures more apt In receiving instruction than any 
other of our mammals, and the things which they can be 
made to do appear to indicate a native intelligence nearer 
to that of man than is found in any other species below the 
level of the apes. 

As there is little in the books of anecdotes of animals 
concerning pigs, I venture to give an account of a learned 
individual of this species whose performances I had an oppor- 
tunity of observing in much detail. The creature, an ordi- 
nary specimen about three years old, had been trained by a 
peasant In the mountain district of Virginia who made his 
living by instructing animals for show purposes. He stated 



144 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

that in selecting pigs for education it was his practice to 
choose those characterized by a considerable width between 
the eyes and whose skulls projected in this part of their 
periphery to a more than usual degree. He said that from 
many experiments he was satisfied that there was a very great 
difference in the capacity of the animals to receive training, 
and that the above-mentioned indices afforded him sufifiicient 
guidance in his choice. 

In the exhibition about to be described there were but 
three persons present, myself, another spectator, and the 
showman. A score of cards were placed upon the ground, 
each bearing a numeral or the name of some distinguished 
person. These cards were in perfect disorder. I was 
allowed, indeed, repeatedly to change their position and to 
mix them up as I pleased. The pig was then told to pick out 
the name of Abraham Lincoln and brine it to his master. 
This he readily did. He was asked in what year Lincoln 
was assassinated. He slowly but without correction brought 
one by one the appropriate numerals and put them on the 
ground in due order. Half a dozen other questions concern- 
ing names and dates Vv^ere answered in a similar way. Each 
success was rewarded with a Qrrain of corn, and for his failures 
the creature received a reasonable drubbing. It was evident 
that the animal had to consider in making his choice of the 
cards. At times he was evidently much puzzled and would 
indicate his perplexity by squealing. 

It seemed clear that the master of this learned pig did not 
guide the movements of the animal by other indications than 
words. The questions, in some cases, had to be reiterated in 
a loud voice in order to insure attention. .Several times dur- 
ing the performance the pig rebelled, broke from the tent, 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 145 

and was wath difficulty recaptured. The creature disliked 
this task in the manner of a lazy school-boy, and at the end 
of an hour of exercises seemed utterly overcome by his labor. 
He ran into the box where he was ordinarily confined, and 
when dragged forth, neither rewards nor punishments would 
quicken him to further work. 

The above-described exhibition made it plain to me that 
the pig can be taught to understand a certain amount of 
human speech and to associate memories with phrases sub- 
stantially as we do ourselves. It is perfectly clear that the 
performance which I witnessed was not a mere routine action, 
for I had a number of questions asked over again so as to 
make it sure that the creature acted *with reference to each 
separate inquiry. The behavior of the animal during the 
performance seemed clearly to indicate mental effort and not 
mere automatic memory. His attitude when trying to deter- 
mine which of two cards to take distinctly showed that he was 
intently viewing the figures and endeavoring to come to a 
decision. I am aware it has been suggested that learned pigs 
discriminate between the cards by peculiarities of odor which 
have been given to these bits of paper. I sought carefully 
to find if such was the case, and though I have a very keen 
sense of smell I found nothing which led me to suspect that 
this device was used. Even if such were the case, the ration- 
ality of the animal's action would be none the less clear. 
The showman assured me that he never used any such 
means in training pigs. He seemed, indeed, to treat the 
suggestion with contempt. 

Although experiments in the training of pigs show that 
they have rather remarkable intellectual capacities, the most 
human feature in their mental organization is found in the 



146 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

keen sympathy which they exhibit with the sufferings of their 
own kind and the wilHngness with which they encounter dan- 
ger in protecting their comrades. It usually requires close 
observation for the naturalist to determine the existence of 
this motive among the other wild or domesticated mammals. 
In fact, the traces of it are very slight indeed, and are gener- 
ally to be attributed to the care of parents for offspring or of 
the males for their harem — a disposition which, though akin to 
the defence of the kind, is nevertheless of a special and 
peculiar nature. Even among our domestic dogs, whose 
sympathies have been developed in a remarkable degree and 
who will sacrifice their lives to defend or rescue the human 
beings with whom they are familiar, there appears to be but 
little disposition to support members of their species who 
may be assailed. With pigs, however, as is well known to 
all those who have observed their habits, the characteristic 
cry of distress of their fellows proves very exciting and stim- 
ulates all the adults, both male and female, who hear it to 
hasten in defence of their kinsmen. It is a noteworthy fact 
that while most other animals when in danger utter no dis- 
tinct or continuous cry, the pig gives voice in a vociferous 
and insistent manner, as if he had a right to expect the 
sympathy and help of his species. The cry goes with the 
custom of defence which in this species has attained a bet- 
ter foundation in the sympathetic motives than in any other 
mammal below the level of man. 

It is perhaps due to their relatively high intellectual 
organization that the excessively domesticated pigs are 
liable to suffer from attacks of mania. This is most com- 
monly exhibited by the sows, which at times will destroy 
their young shortly after they are born. The sight of their 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 1 4/ 

progeny seems to infuriate them in a curious manner. One 
sow which I owned killed three successive litters ; another fine 
animal of the Berkshire breed, a very amiable, indeed affec- 
tionate, creature, was carefully watched at the time she first 
bore young, precautions being taken to prevent her from 
harming them ; she would willingly allow them to suckle, 
provided she did not see them, but the moment she laid her 
eyes upon them she was seized with the strange fury. 

Although this singular perversion of the natural instincts 
of maternity sometimes occurs among the pigs which are 
allowed to roam together in herds, it seems to be far more 
common in those conditions where the animals are confined 
in pens without contact with their kind, and where they have 
no chance to recognize the young as members of their species 
or to acquire that interest in them which they would gain in 
the society of the herd. It is also clear that this maniacal 
habit is inherited ; according to my observation it is common 
among the Berkshire, and relatively rare in other less special- 
ized varieties. 

The intelligence of the pig is also shown in the readiness 
with which the creature changes its habits to meet varied 
environments. Thus the pigs which range the woods in the 
western and southern parts of the United States have learned 
to catch the crawfish which abounds in the shallow streams in 
those parts of this country. They will wade up a brook, 
turning over the stones and driftwood as they go, catching 
with a quick movement the crustaceans which they have thus 
dislodged from their cover. Along the shores of the Bay of 
Fundy, the pigs, accustomed to follow the tide out, picking 
the chance food which is thus exposed to them, have learned 
carefully to avoid the risk of being caught by the returning 



148 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

waters. With the first splash of the turning tide they hasten 
inshore until they have attained safe ground. 

One of the best evidences of the mental state of these 
animals is found in their actions when assailed by dogs or 
other beasts of prey. Pigs, though wary and sensible of 
danger, seem exempt from the extreme fear which leads to 
panic, and fight, even before being brought to bay by long 
chasing, in a discreet and valiant manner. Where a number 
of them are attacked by dogs or other enemies, they will 
form a circle with their heads out, each supporting the other 
in such a manner that the ring cannot readily be broken. 
Their thick-skinned forequarters and stout tusks provide 
them with excellent instruments with which to resist an 
assault. 

The sagacity of the pigs is probably, in part at least, to be 
attributed to the fact that in their native state they are com- 
munal animals, all the species of their family being accus- 
tomed to live gregariously, so that for ages they have had 
the training which every social organization, however simple, 
affords. They are, moreover, omnivorous feeders, accus- 
tomed to subsist on a great variety of food — a habit which 
seems in all cases to promote the development of the intel- 
lio^ence in animals. 

Although the pigs by their nature afforded the best oppor- 
tunity for developing an intellectual animal which has come 
to us through our domesticated creatures, no effort whatever 
has been made by selection to develop the latent mental 
capacities of this species. It is perhaps the only form of 
those which man has subjugated which by his treatment he 
tends to degrade. In the time to come, when men will be 
held to a better accountability for the treatment of their 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 149 

captives, the condition of these animals will afford a fair field 
for the reformer's care. 

The geologist who is acquainted with the mammalian life 
of the Middle Tertiary period readily notes the fact that the 
variety in genera and species appears to be much greater 
than it is at the present time. A great number of forms, 
differing somewhat widely from those now in existence, then 
abounded in the Americas and the Old World. It may 
at first sight seem unfortunate that man did not have the 
chance to essay his domesticative arts on that older and 
apparently richer life. A closer examination, however, leads 
us to see that the species of that time, though more numerous 
than those of the present, were on the whole less fitted for 
our use than the fewer but more completely differentiated 
kinds with which we have had to deal. The multitude of 
kinds which we find in the Mesozoic period indicates that the 
life was in a state more experimental than that to which it has 
attained. A host of forms on their way towards the speciali- 
zation which has now been attained have been removed from 
the sphere, in the manner of a scaffolding from a completed 
structure. That which has been left remains because it has 
successfully accomplished the task of reconciliation with envi- 
ronment, or, in simpler phrase, because it has learned to do 
things which were useful and profitable in a more perfect 
manner. 

As an illustration of the fact that the animals of to-day 
are better fitted to be the help-meets of man than were their 
ancestors of an earlier time, we may note the state of the 
horse at the time when that genus was undergoing its devel- 
opment in the region about the upper waters of the Missouri. 
As may be imagined, the long and difficult passage from the 



150 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

five-toed to the single-toed form was slowly accomplished, and 
to its doing went a great many temporary forms, which .served, 
we may say, as stepping-stones for the ongoing. So far as 
we can judge, these intermediate forms were small, rather frail 
creatures, which pi-obably could not have been made to serve 
any purpose useful to man. It was not until the mechanical 
system of the large single toe with the wonderfully developed 
nail, which makes up the foot and hoof of the horse, had been 
attained, that the creature becomes fit for the wonderful work 
we have persuaded him to do in our civilization. 

A comparison of the skulls of the Tertiary mammals 
and those of our own day indicates that in certain of the 
important series, and presumably in them all, the brain has 
increased in size from the earlier to the later times. This 
increase in brain capacity has doubtless been attended by a 
decided gain in the measure of intelligence, a gain which has 
doubtless served to make the modern representatives of the 
series fitter for man's use than their ancestors were. For, while 
the number of our very useful domesticated forms may seem 
at first sight to be dull of wit, none of them are really low in 
the intellectual scale as we apply it to the brute ; in fact, a 
considerable measure of intelligence is absolutely required as 
a condition for true subjugation. This is seen by the fact 
that nothing like a real adoption into our social system has 
€ver been accomplished except with a few of the higher orders 
of mammals and birds, species which have an intellectual 
capacity that we recognize as akin to our own. Thus, so far 
as we can see, man's appearance on this stage was, so far as 
it relates to the possibility of companionship with the lower 
life, exceedingly well timed. He came at a period when the 
life was ready to give him and to receive from him a large 



THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 151 

measure of help. If his advent had been much earlier, he 
micrht have had less trouble in his contests with the larger 
carnivora ; but if there had been a lack of beasts to obey his 
will, it is doubtful whether he could himself have won his way 
above that primitive life. 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 

Domestication of Animals mainly accomplished by the Aryan Race ; Small Amount of Such 
Work by American Indians. — Barnyard Fowl : Mental Qualities ; Habits of Combat. 
— Peacocks : their Limited Domestication. — Turkeys : their Origin ; tending to 
revert to the Savage State. — Water Fowl : Limited Number of Species domesticated ; 
Intellectual Qualities of this Group. — The Pigeon : Origin and History of Group ; 
Marvels of Breeding. — Song Birds. — Hawks and Hawking. — Sympathetic Motive of 
Birds : their .Esthetic Sense ; their Capacity for Enjoyment. 

It is an interesting fact that about all the work of domes- 
tication which has been done by man has been accomplished 
by the peoples of Asia and mainly by the Aryan race. The 
American Indians tamed the llama and alpaca and a few 
species of native plants ; even where their habits were pre- 
vailingly sedentary they domesticated no birds. It was left 
for Europeans to make use of the wild turkey. Our primitive 
people had the same chance to tame ducks and geese as the 
folk of the Old World. They appear, however, to have lacked 
all capacity for such endeavors. The same lack of disposition 
to capture and tame wild creatures is noticeable among the 
characteristic peoples of Africa ; all of which serves to show 
that the domesticating art, at least as applied to animals, is 
peculiar to the higher-grade folk of the Old World. 

Of all the birds which have been domesticated, our com- 
mon barnyard fowl has been by far the most useful to man. 
It has become in a way interwoven with his life to a degree 
found only in a few of our barnyard animals. Next after the 
pigeons and the pigs it has been most deeply impressed by 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 



153 



the breeder's art. The wild species whence it sprang is a 
small creature, laying but few eggs and with but a slight 
tendency to accumulate fat. From this parent stock varieties 
have been bred which attain in some cases to eight or ten 
times the weight of the ancient form. They have, moreover, 
lost the fierce combative spirit which characterizes their 
- ^^ ancestors and which by selection has been 

preserved and intensified in our breeds of 

eame-cocks. 





The Original Jungle Fowl {Callus bankiva) and Some of His Domestic Descendants 

It is an interesting fact that our barnyard fowl is the only 
species of a large family of birds which has been truly domes- 
ticated. The kindred pheasants and grouse, though abound- 
ing in the Old World and the New, and much disposed to 
abide about the cultivated fields, appear to be rather untam- 
able. However well cared for, the wilderness motive seems 
never to have been eradicated. The domesticability of the 
cock, as is that of most other wild animals, is doubtless to be 
explained by the conditions of the life in which it has dwelt 
for ages before it was introduced to the society of man. In its 



154 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

wild state this bird had already to a great extent lost the 
power of flight, using its wings only for escaping from four- 
footed pursuers or to attain the branches of the trees in which 
it sought safety in the night time. With this measure of loss 
of the flying power, the creature abandoned the habit of rang- 
inof over a wide field, and thus was made more fit for domes- 
tication. Moreover, in their wilderness life these birds dwelt 
in more established communities than their kindred species. 
The most of these wild forms do not keep together through 
the year, but scatter after the young are able to shift for 
themselves. The Indian species of Galhis, however, from 
which our cocks and hens descend, have organized their life 
so that the individuals remain associate in a friendly way 
throughout the year. 

A part of the fitness of this creature to cast in its lot with 
man arises from the fact that they have very sympathetic 
natures. This is shown by the way in which the cocks will 
fight for their hens, even against their dreaded enemies, the 
hawks; and by the manner in which the mother, overcoming 
her natural fears, will do battle for her brood. It is shown 
also in the curious mingling of gallantry and kindliness with 
which the cock will call a hen to give her some choice bit of 
food which he has captured. As he grows older and becomes 
Philistinish, we may note that, after the manner of unfeath- 
ered bipeds, he is often disposed to indulge his selfishness, 
and summons his flock only to see him devour the morsel. 
Even in old age, however, the males of the varieties which 
are nearest the parent stock maintain their helpful motives 
and will struggle with infirmity to beat off a bird of prey. 

The sympathetic and affectionate quality of our barnyard 
fowl is perhaps best indicated by the singular variety and 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 155 

denotative value of their various calls and cries. Those who 
know these birds well will find no difficulty in recognizing about 
a score of diverse sounds, each of which indicates a particular 
turn of their mind. Almost all of these different notes have 
slight variations of expression which fit particular situations. 
Thus the crow of these birds, which may seem to the unob- 
servant a very unvaried sound, discloses to those who have 
lovingly studied them at least half a dozen distinct modifi- 
cations. In the fledgling male who just begins to feel the 
spirit of his kind, and who goes through his performance in 
the adolescent way, it is a cheap and often pitiful call. From 
the open roost in the trees, where the birds are gradually 
aroused by the slow-coming day, we can often hear the note 
of the half-awakened cock, as full of the sense of slumber 
as the speech of a sleeping man. As the creature gradually 
awakens, his cry becomes more resonant until it has the true 
morning ring. Brave as is this note of the full day, it is not 
to be compared with the crowing of a game-cock, the most 
splendid braggart sound of all the animal world. 

The really sympathetic notes of our fowls are uttered in 
their ordinary intercourse. Here the gradations of sounds 
have a range and fineness which, it seems to me, we can 
observe in no other creature below the level of man. Atten- 
tion, astonishment, fear, commonplace distress, exultation, and 
agony are all set forth with cries which we, in a way, recog- 
nize as appropriate. Although some of these sounds relate to 
the larger experiences of the creatures, the most instructive 
of them are uttered in their ordinary intercourse, where they 
clearly maintain a kind of consensus in the flock by unending 
small bits of emotional speech, the notes being shaded in a 
wonderful way. These fine variations of utterance can some- 



156 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

times be observed to be related to slight differences of situa- 
tion. Thus the cackle of a hen when she leaves her nest after 
laying an ^g<g is quite different from that which is made by 
the same hen when, during the period of incubation, she quits 
her eggs in search of food and water. 

It is not. unlikely that the eminent domesticability of our 
common fowls is in a way associated with the singular variety 
of their notes. This variety indicates that the creatures are 
in constant and effective communication with one another ; in 
a word, they are very sympathetic. With this intellectual 
helpfulness naturally goes the love of the domicile and a 
disposition to submit to control. 

So nice and well understood are the differences between 
the sounds which these birds give forth, and so well are their 
notes appreciated by their companions, that the creatures 
may well be said to have a language. Though it probably 
conveys only emotions and not distinct thoughts, it still must 
be regarded as a certain kind of speech. The modes of 
expression indicate that in this creature, as in the other 
feathered forms, the intellectual life consists largely in the 
movements inspired by the emotions. On the rational side 
our fowls seem weaker than many other less interesting 
species. In their nesting and other habits there are no 
evidences of constructive ingenuity ; and in all my observa- 
tions on them I have never seen any evidence which showed 
either considerable powers of memory or a capacity to act 
in any complicated way with reference to an end. It is 
evident, however, that they make a very good classifica- 
tion of the world about them. They have, for the limited 
field over which they roam, a keen topographic sense ; they 
never are lost, and this in connection with their sympathetic 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 157 

homing instinct prevents them from wandering from their 
accustomed places to take up again with a wilderness life. 

In their adhesion to domestication our common fowls 
differ in a remarkable way from all other of our captive 
animals except the dog, and these birds are even more 
ineradicably attached to man than their older companion. 
While the dog will sometimes become half wild, or, as we 
may phrase it, undomiciled, fowls seem incapable of maintain- 
ing themselves apart from human care. In much ranging 
of the wilderness I have never found one of these creatures 
more than a thousand feet away from a human habitation. 
When we consider how common must be the chances of 
their going astray, and how easy it is in many parts of the 
country, as in our Southern States, for them to obtain in 
the wilderness food throughout the year, the fact that they 
never go wild is indeed remarkable. It can only be explained 
by the great development of the homing instinct which man 
has brought about in their sympathetic souls. 

Although our unnatural process of breeding has done 
much to degrade the original beauty of the cocks and hens, 
destroying the delicate coloration of the feathers as well as 
the admirable blending and contrasts of their pristine hues, 
it seems likely that the effect on the physical and mental 
development as a whole has not been unfavorable. Though 
less courageous, they are stronger creatures than in their wild 
state ; they are clearly more fecund ; they are gentler natured ; 
and, so far as I have been able to compare the high-bred with 
the primitive forms, their range of expression through the 
voice has been much increased, a feature which may be 
noted in other domesticated species of birds, as, for instance, 
in the canaries. The most remarkable alteration which has 



158 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



been brought about In the minds of these creatures consists 
in the very great diminution in the combative motive of the 
males. In the wild forms, as well as in the kindred variety 
of the game-cock, this impulse to battle attains a truly phe- 




Cochins 



Leghorns 



nomenal development, the like of which is probably not to 
be found in any other creature. The male birds begin their 
warfare before they are more than half grown, and in their 
adult state will attack anything which they can conceive to 
be an enemy. They will, with slight provocation, assail any 
of the other domesticated species of birds, and even the 
lesser mammals, such as the dogs and cats. They will fight 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 1 59 

their own image in a looking-glass, I have had game-cocks 
attack my hand when it was held near the ground and given 
an up-and-down movement in imitation of their antagonist's 
head. 

I once reared a game-cock by hand, keeping him secluded 
from his kind until he was adult. I then placed him in a 
large collection of barnyard fowl where there were half a 
dozen mongrel cocks, a drake of the muscovy variety, several 
ganders, and two turkey-gobblers. Immediately and in rapid 
succession he settled his accounts with the males of his own 
kind. He shortly overcame the drake and the ganders. He 
then devoted what was left of his forces to battles with the 
turkeys. Here he found himself in great difficulty, for the 
reason that these great birds would seize him by the head 
and lift his body off the ground. However, he soon learned 
an ingenious trick which protected him from this danger. 
When eatherincv breath in the intervals between his assaults, 
he would hover himself between his antagonist's legs, keeping 
step with the awkward creature in its efforts to get away from 
him. In a few days he wore out these doughty foemen and 
remained the battered master of the field. 

Although the indomitable valor of the game-cock may be 
in some measure due to the selection which the breeder has 
applied to the variety, there can be no question that it is 
essentially natural to the species and is the result of an age- 
long habit which in the native wilds of the creature did much 
to insure its safety. The antiquity of the state of mind may 
be judged by the perfection to which the spurs have attained 
and the remarkably skilful and definite way in which the 
creatures use them. The spur, which has arisen from the 
development of the scales and underlying bone of the bird's 



i6o 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



leg, is a singularly perfect structure, the finish of which can- 
not be judged in the degraded form in which it is found in 
our ordinary barnyard species. Although in its construction 
this weapon is admirably devised, it is placed in a position 
where only a remarkably well-addressed movement can give 
effect to its blow. Those who have watched game-cocks in 
combat have had a chance to see the vaults by which the 



I 




,»*v 




^^- 




■«(r-^' 



^^ 




■^'^^ 



Dorkings 



creature, partly turning in the air, is able to throw the spur in 
such a manner that it shares the impulse of the body when it 
strikes the antagonist. This peculiar craft has been in good 
part lost among our common varieties. Their spiritless con- 
tests differ as much from those of the game-birds as do the 
fist figrhts of untrained men from the contests of skilled 
pugilists. 

Although to persons unaccustomed to the spectacle the 
combats between game-birds may seem disgusting, almost 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS l6l 

every one must admire the valor, grace, and address which 
such scenes exhibit. Except where the brutal custom of put- 
ting steel points on the spurs prevails, the birds rarely receive 
fatal wounds. The defeated cock is soon brought to confess 
his inferiority and takes himself away. At no other time in 
the life of these birds does their organic beauty appear to 
such advantage as when they are struggling with each other. 
Then alone do we perceive the singular efficiency of their 
bodies and the quick as well as appropriate action of their 
instincts. They set themselves against each other in attitudes 
as well chosen and as peculiar as those of a well-trained 
fencer. Before the assault they often go through a singular 
performance, which consists in picking up bits of twigs or 
pebbles. These they cast into the air, an unmeaning move- 
ment which may be compared to the like meaningless though 
similarly graceful salute with which swordsmen preface their 
contests. Then, with their legs flexed so that they may be 
ready for the spring, and with the rather stiff feathers about 
the neck erected so as to serve as a shield, they creep toward 
each other until they are separated by the distance appro- 
priate for the spring. When fairly placed for battle they 
begin a system of fence which is intended to provoke the 
enemy to an untimely assault. The art of the game appears 
to consist in persuading the adversary to venture an attack 
where his force will be spent in the air, so that a blow can be 
given him before he has time to recover position. The issue 
depends much on the endurance of the birds. Their move- 
ments require so much energy that one of them is apt to 
become exhausted before the other is quite spent. In rare 
cases, only one of which has been seen by me, a weary bird 
will feien death for a minute or so and thus obtain new 



1 62 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

Strength with which to renew the combat, profiting also by 
the confusion which he will bring upon his adversary by his 
sudden revival. 

Although the combatant motive which we find in the 
males among our barnyard fowls has doubtless been devel- 
oped through their combats with each other, the valiant spirit 
which has come from it often leads the creatures to attack 
the enemies of their flock. I have seen a nimble game-cock 
strike a hawk which was pouncing to its prey, delivering the 
blow some feet above the surface of the ground, and this so 
effectively that the marauder was driven away in a sorely 
hurt condition. I have seen males of the game variety 
attack a number of other larger animals which in any way 
threatened their charges. 

Although our barnyard fowl are almost the only ground 
birds which have ever been brought to a state of perfect 
domestication, there are several other species of the same 
group which have been taught in a measure to adhere to man. 
Of these perhaps the longest in domestication is the peafowl. 
This creature, though it has edible, indeed we may say savory 
flesh, has retained its small place in civilization solely on 
account of its extraordinary beauty. For its size it is doubt- 
less the most beautiful of animals, its plumage, especially the 
magnificent display of the tail, exceeding that of any other 
natural object. There are other birds of small size which vie 
with the peacock in the details of ornamentation. Those 
jewels among the feathered tribes, the humming-birds, have 
a more delicate beauty. The birds-of-paradise and the lyre- 
birds have a grace in the attitudes of particular feathers which 
is unequalled ; but for splendor none of them approach the 
peacock in his best estate. 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 



163 



The peacock is a native of Southern Asia, a realm in fact 
in which the species of the group attain an uncommonly rich 

development. The creat- 
ure appears to have been 
domesticated some thou- 
sands of years ago, but 
has undergone no con- 
siderable changes in its 
experience with 
man. It has in 
truth not been com- 
pletely tamed. It 




Contributions from Asia, Africa, and America-Peacocks, Guinea-fowl, and Turkey 

does not willingly remain near the dwellings of man, but 
prefers to abide apart, only resorting to the home when in 



164 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

need of food. It is very intolerant of the other barnyard 
creatures, and often becomes possessed of a kind of mania 
for slaying their young, not for food but from pure spirit of 
mischief. 

Intellectually speaking, the peacocks are much below the 
cocks and hens ; although they flock together, their sympa- 
thies do not seem quick ; their cries and calls do not number 
a fifth part of those which we hear from our chickens, and 
their notes are prevailingly very discordant. Their cry of defi- 
ance, answering to the crow of the cock, is one of the rudest 
and least sympathetic sounds which is heard among the birds. 
Its only merit is that it can be heard very far. It is readily 
audible at the distance of a mile when it breaks the stillness 
of a summer night. At present the bird seems out of favor. 
At best it is a beautiful but annoying ornament to pleasure- 
grounds. It is likely, indeed, that it may in time become 
limited to its native wildernesses and to zoological gardens. 

From Africa we have derived one rather uncommon ten- 
ant of our barnyards and fields, the guinea-hen. This creat- 
ure, though of convenient size, hardy, and commendable from 
the number of eggs it lays, has never won a large place in the 
esteem of our rural people, and is now not much kept, except 
in some parts of the Southern States of this country. The 
difificulty with this creature, as with the peacock, is that it is 
not truly domesticated ; though it will not betake itself alto- 
gether to the woods, it prefers to maintain a half-wild habit. 
It will not, if it can possibly avoid it, lay its eggs in any place 
where they are likely to be found by man. Moreover, their 
rude and little-modu\ated cries are in the summer season 
almost incessant, and the din which a considerable flock can 
produce is exceedingly vexatious. They thus do not fit the 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 



i6^ 



needs or comfort of man to the degree which is likely to give 
them a permanent place among his associates. 

The last considerable addition to our barnyards has come 
to us in the form of the turkey. This species has the pecul- 
iar distinction of being the only animal form of definite use to 
man over a wide field which has been contributed from the 
life of the New World. Although the creature was much 




The Domesticated Turkey 

hunted by our North American Indians, and is of a type 
which lends itself to domestication, it does not appear to have 
become a companion of man until it was taken from the West 
India Islands to Europe shortly after the discovery of this 
country. Thence the domesticated form appears to have 
been returned to this country, where it has been a favorite 
in a measure unknown in the Old World. Ornithologists 
deem the Cuban turkey, whence our tame form came, to 
be specifically distinct from those which are found on the 



1 66 DOMESTICATED AJVIMALS 

mainland of this continent. Although these kinds are dis- 
tinguishable by plumage, they are probably only varieties of 
a common species. This is indicated by the fact that our 
tame flocks readily intermingle with their wild kindred. 

"The ease with which the turkey becomes domesticated is 
remarkable. In this regard the creature may be compared 
to our cocks and hens. In both cases the tamableness is 
doubtless to be explained by the fact that the primitive forms 
dwelt in permanent association, the movements of which were 
in a way controlled by the adult males, and by the fact that 
the forms had abandoned the use of winors for wide-raneine 
flight. The change which has been brought about in the 
turkeys with their adoption into the human association has 
been slight. No distinct varieties of breeds have been origi- 
nated, though here and there the observer may note slight 
local variations in the coloration of the plumage, which are 
probably due to varying admixtures with the wild forms of 
our forests. Thus in Kentucky and other parts of the South, 
where the opportunities for the intermingling of blood of the 
tame and wild forms are frequent, the domesticated creatures 
often resemble so nearly the wilderness forms that even the 
wary hunter may make mistakes as to whether the bird he 
sights be fair game or not. Unless carefully watched, a drove 
of these creatures on the border of the wilderness is apt 
gradually to return to the wild state, the three or four cen- 
turies of life about the home of man not having been suffi- 
cient to do away with their ancient love of freedom. 

Among the English folk of North America the turkeys 
found a large place as an element of the food-supply. It 
has become curiously associated with the Puritan festival of 
Thanksgiving, an institution which has spread throughout 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 1 67 

the United States and which has in a way taken the place of 
the harvest-home festivities of the Old World and bygone 
ages. It is probable that the relation of this bird to our 
national festivities has done much to keep it in use in this 
country. It is a well-recognized fact that it is costly to keep 
and that the eggs are not desirable for culinary use. The 
species requires a wide range. It does not do well in the con- 
fined conditions in which cocks and hens can readily be main- 
tained. It therefore is not likely to be kept in any region 
where the agriculture is of a high grade. It is best suited to 
farms where there are considerable areas of half-wild pastures. 
Although the turkey is a truly gregarious form, its men- 
tal endowments are of a lower grade than those of most social 
birds. Their calls are few in number and have little of that 
conversational quality which we note in those of our ordinary 
barnvard fowls. Althouorh the males contest the field with 
each other by personal combats, they are not very valiant, the 
creatures trusting for favor with the females rather to the 
parade of their plumage and the pomp of their carriage than 
to the wager of battle. In the matter of show the}' are, how- 
ever, very effective, being surpassed only by the peacock in 
the splendor of their attire. In their domesticated state they 
lose much of the beauty which they have in the wilderness, as 
they do their pristine dimensions. Those who have hunted 
our Vv'ild species are likely to remember scenes where in some 
forest glade they have beheld a gobbler displaying his graces 
to an admiring harem. As he struts about with his tail feath- 
ers erect and his neck arched back, now and then pausing to 
utter an exultant gobble, the spectacle is one of the most 
amusing displays of animal pride which the naturalist has a 
chance to behold. 



i68 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



Recent experiments in ostrich farming seem to indicate 
that we are on the eve of introducing into our " happy 
family " the noblest remaining member of that group of great 
birds which characterized the life of the later geological 
periods. As yet the efforts in taming ostriches are too new 

for us to tell just 
what the effect of 
man's skill on the 
development of this 
creature will be. It 
is evident, however, 
that the creature 
can be won from its 
wilderness state, at 
least to something 
like the imperfect 
compan ionship 
with man which has 
been attained by 
the oruinea-fowls 

o 

and turkeys. All 
we know of the 
variations in plum- 
age of birds indi- 
cates that the breeder's art may bring about great changes in 
the highly decorative feathers for which this bird is to be 
reared. It is also probable that with the better food which 
domestic conditions im.ply, this wanderer of the desert may 
be brought to attain a very much greater size than it wins in 
the hard life of its native land. If the form should prove as 
plastic as that of our ordinary barnyard species, we may indeed 




"^^ 



The Largest of all Poultry — The Ostrich 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 169 

succeed in developing a variety approaching in dimensions the 
gigantic moa of New Zealand, or the sepyornis of Madagascar, 
those magnificent creatures of the past which passed away 
just before their native lands were known to our race. The 
variations in size of the wild ostrich appear to indicate that 
this interesting result may be attainable. 

Next after the cocks and hens the most important birds 
of economic value have come from the water fowl. In this 
field there are great opportunities for domestication, only a 
few of which have been adequately used. The aquatic 
birds, save for the fact that they are in all cases inspired with 
a more or less strong migratory humor, lend themselves to 
the shaping hand of man more readily than most other forms. 
These creatures have the habit of association in a much more 
perfect way than our ground birds. They normally dwelt 
in rather close order and in relations which are necessarily 
very sympathetic. Whoever has watched the flight of wild 
geese must have remarked the beautiful way in which they 
arrange at once for close companionship and for safety in the 
violent movements which impel their heavy bodies at high 
speed through the air. In the order of their flight the align- 
ment is more perfect than in the march of trained soldiers. 
Each bird keeps as near to his neighbor as possible ; but 
manages always to preserve the interval which will insure 
aeainst a collision of the stronof and swift-movino; wingrs, an 
accident which might well disable them for flight. I have 
repeatedly undertaken to confound their motion by firing a 
rifle bullet at the head of the moving wedge. Although the 
sound of the projectile, if well directed, will disturb their 
processional order, it never brings confusion. The startled 
birds sink down or rise above the plane of the air in which 



170 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



their comrades are moving, but they never strike against 
them. 

The admirable sense of interval which the wild birds ex- 
hibit in their flight is to be seen also when they move over the 
surface of the water, where the fleet of living forms is always 






^r 



.■oik 




An Eider Colony 

SO arranged that each individual does not interfere with its 
neighbor. I recall with much pleasure an occasion when, from 
a ship becalmed in a thick fog off the southern shore of Lab- 
rador, within sound of the breakers, I undertook to find 
something about the lay of the land and the chance of har- 
borage by paddling in a small boat toward the shore. I had 
hardly lost sight of the ship when my boat glided into an 
assemblage of eider ducks, where the mothers, with their 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 



171 



fledgling young, were lazily swimming to and fro, as if to 
practise the ducklings in the art of swimming. Each brood 
appeared to have its own space of water, and between each 
of the chicks there was likewise a less but equally well meas- 
ured interval. The same features of orderly association, 
which I have just noted in the swimming and flying of these 
wild birds, may be seen in a somewhat degraded state in our 




Terns Aiding a Wounded Comrade 

domesticated varieties of the group. They all indicate in 
these forms a keen sense of their neighbors and a habit of 
association based upon sympathetic emotions. 

The sympathetic quality of our water fowl, at least in that 
part of the emotion which leads them to be concerned with 
the afflictions of their species, appears to be more distinct 
than in the case of our ordinary barnyard fowl. Geese, as is 
well known, will make common cause against an intruder 
from whom harm to the flock may be expected. Their 



172 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

simultaneous din when anything occurs to arouse their enmity 
is commemorated in the ancient myth concerning the aid 
which they gave in the defence of the walls of Rome. There 
are anecdotes apparently well attested where water fowl have 
borne away a wounded comrade which had fallen before the 
huntsman's fowling-piece. In Smiles's " Life of Edwards " 
there is an often-quoted story which appears to be trust- 
worthy and sufficiently illustrates this point. A hunter, 
having shot one of a flock of terns, which fell wounded into 
the water near the shore, waded in to seize it. Suddenly 
two of the terns came to their wounded companion, seized 
him by either wing, and bore him toward the open sea. 
When these two helpers were weary, the sufferer was 
lowered into the water, and, in turn, seized by two other birds 
which were fresh for the labor. Working in succession, these 
birds carried their companion to a rock some distance from 
the shore. When the hunter endeavored to approach the 
rock, yet others of the species seized the cripple and bore 
him far beyond reach. 

Although too much value must not be given to the numer- 
ous anecdotes concerning the sagacity of water fowl, the great 
mass of these stories, as compared with the poverty of the 
anecdotes concerning the better-known barnyard creatures, 
seems to establish the fact that their intellio-ence is much 
greater than that of the land birds. This superiority can 
probably be attributed to the fact that their life requires much 
more definite adaptation of means to ends than in the simpler 
conditions which are met by the forms which dwell in the 
fields. The circumstances of their life are somethingf like 
those of the seals among mammals. They have to do with 
the conditions of the air, the land, and the water ; and as they 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 



17: 



generally undertake long migrations, the range of the things 
they have to accommodate themselves to is great, and the 
effect of their labor is decidedly educative. 

As yet, from the great number of species of water fowl 
man has really domesticated but two characteristic groups, the 
species of geese and of ducks. Swans have been brought to 
a state where they tolerate the presence of man, though they 




Wood Duck China Goose Australian Swan Canada Goose 

Some Recent Additions to the Poultry Yard 

rarely establish any really intimate relations with him. Some 
other species, as, for instance, the grebe, have been taught to 
dwell about the homes of man, accepting food from his hands. 
It is likely that more of these water fowl would have come 
into human associations were it not for the fact that they 
are naturally migratory, and when, after a season of domes- 
tication, they join a passing flock, they never return to the 
place where they have been kept. 

The swan, like the peacock, has been bred for ornament 
rather than for use. In fact, the bird has no other merit 



174 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



than its exceeding grace. We cannot believe that much 
pains was ever taken with this creature to break up the 
migrator}' instincts which are common in the wild kindred 
species. We have to suppose that the bird in its pristine 
form was without the impulse to undertake distant journeys 
in the winter season, or that it abandoned ancient habits with 
no great difficulty. We obtain some light on this point by 




noting the fact that among the migratory species it not 
infrequently happens that, while the greater number of indi- 
viduals undertake the annual journey, certain of them will 
remain on the ground where they were born. Those which 
remain would be more likely to mate with those which were 
like-minded than with others that journeyed afar. In this 
way small local breeds might well be originated which would 
differ from their migratory kindred not only in the measure of 
the wandering instincts, but in the capacity for flight which 
their kindred preserve. There is some reason to believe that 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 



175 



this process of selection naturally and somewhat frequently 
takes place. In certain cases it may lay the foundation of 
new species, or at least of distinct varieties ; more commonly, 
however, the individuals which have abandoned the migratory 
life are likely to perish from the severity of climate or the 
other unfavorable conditions that their mates avoid by their 
wanderings. 







The Original Wild Rock Dove (Coluntba livid) and Sonne of its Donnestic Descendants 

Although many of the free-flying birds of the land are or 
have been kept captive because of the pleasure which men 
have found from their songs, their grace, or their quaint ways, 
only one of these has really been gained to domestication. 
In the pigeon, man has made what is on many accounts the 
most remarkable of all his conquests over the wild nature 
about him. While the breeder's art has led many forms, 
some of them on several divergent lines, far away from their 
primitive estate, in no other field has it accomplished such 



176 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

surprising results as with the doves. The original wild form 
of this group is a native of Europe and Asia, where the spe- 
cies Columba livia, or rock pigeon, is still common, and 
whence it may be readily won anew to domestication. It is 
a small, plain-colored, rather invariable and inconspicuous bird 
about the size of our American dove. In its wild state it 
dwells in small flocks, nesting by preference in the crannies of 
the cliffs, and exhibiting no striking qualities which make it 
seem a desirable subject for domestication. We note, how- 
ever, that even in this primitive condition the creature has 
certain, physical and mental qualities which have been the 
basis of its adoption by man as well as of the wide changes 
which it has undergone at his hands. 

It is a characteristic of all the doves that their young are 
born in a very immature state, and for some time after they 
come from the ^gg they have to be supplied with food which 
has been partly digested in the crop or upper part of the 
stomach of the parent. For the proper rearing of the brood 
there is required the assiduous care of both parents. There- 
fore quite naturally we find among these birds that the pair- 
ing habit is well developed, and as they rear several broods 
each season, that the mating is for life. Although there are 
numbers of birds in various orders which are accustomed to 
the monogamic habit, it happens that the pigeon is the only 
animal which man has ever won to true domestication in 
which the sexes can be thus permanently united. In the 
dovecote, however many birds it may contain, the breeder can 
be always sure as to the parentage of the young which he is 
rearing. This affords an admirable basis for the practice of 
his art, which is still further favored by the fact that pigeons 
reproduce rapidly and the progeny are ready to mate in a few 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 



177 



months after they come into the world. Thus the species 
affords really ideal conditions for that process of selection on 
which the improvement of all domesticated animals intimately 
depends. 

Selective breeding of pigeons began in India, as the rec- 
ords seem to show, more than two thousand years ago. 
Thouorh other ani- 
mals have been 
brought to domes- 
tication at much 
earlier times, this 
appears to have 
been the first of 
them to be sub- 
jected to deliberate 
efforts on the part 
of their masters, 
which were in- 
tended to bring 
about in a method- 
ical way certain 
changes in their 
forms and habits. 
The most curious 

part of this great endeavor which has been applied to breed- 
ing pigeons is found in the fact that the ends sought have 
no utility, but afford satisfaction from the point of view 
of pure diversion or the gratification of taste. We are well 
accustomed to the action of such motives upon our flowering 
plants of the garden, but the pigeon is the only animal w^here 
fancy has labored for thousands of years for its gratification. 




Turtle Doves 



178 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



•mij^irz 



The breeders of pigeons from remote antiquity to the present 
day appear to have had no definite purpose in all their pains. 
They have taken the chance variations in form and habit and 
endeavored to extend these sports of nature by a careful sys- 
tem of mating those in which the singular features were most 
evident. Thus the fan-tail breed has been developed until 

the creatures dis- 
play their unor- 
na mental tail 
feathers with all 
the dignity with 
which a peacock 
shows his marvel- 
lous decorations. 
The pouters have 
in some unac- 
countable way 
learned to take 
air into their 
crop ; and the 
habit has been 
developed by se- 
lection until the 
bird destroys all 
trace of his original shapeliness, though he seems to take 
pride in his diseased appearance. The tumbler, probably 
derived from some ancestor afflicted with a disease of an 
epileptic character, manages to go through his convulsions 
in the air without serious consequences and apparently with 
some pleasure to himself. There are over one hundred less 
conspicuous varieties, of which only one deserves notice, and 




The Giant Crowned Pigeon of India 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS I 79 

this for the reason that it lias some possible utiHty to man 
and is now much attended to. This is known as the carrier 
pigeon. 

In early time, before the invention of the railway and 
telegraph, some ingenious breeder of pigeons, observing the 
constant way in which these creatures returned to the place 
where they were bred, invented the plan of using them to 
convey information. This service was found convenient not 
only for ordinary correspondence, but was exceedingly valu- 
able where a place was beleaguered by an enemy. In such 
cases carrier pigeons could often be used to convey infor- 
mation across the otherwise impassable lines. Even in mod- 
ern times, as, for instance, during the last siege of Paris, 
these swift and sure flying birds proved of great use in 
keeping up communications between the people of the in- 
vested town and the French armies in the field. Letters 
in cipher, sometimes photographed down until the characters 
were microscopically fine, were made into packages of small 
■weight in order not to impede the flight of the bird, carefully 
affixed to its body, and thus sent away. Very generally these 
curious shipments came to the hands of those for whom they 
were destined. The birds can be trusted to fly at night ; they 
retain for a long time the memory of their home, and spare 
no pains to return to it. 

The homing power of the carrier pigeon appears to be a 
special development of a natural capacity, as is also its swift- 
ness and endurance in flight. Our other breeds and the wild 
species whence they have all come are not disposed to under- 
take long journeys ; they rarely, indeed, wander far from their 
abiding places. Our experience with the carriers shows how 
readily the creatures may be educated to perform feats which 



l8o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

they were not accustomed to do in their wild state. Some- 
thing of the same elasticity of constitution may be observed 
in the bodies of our pigeons as they have been affected by 
selection. Not only has the plumage been greatly altered 
by the breeder's art and in pursuance of his plans, but the 
form and proportions of the bones have coincidently and 
unintentionally been greatly changed. So considerable are 
these alterations that if these creatures were submitted for 
dissection to a naturalist who knew nothing of the history 
of the bird, he would have no hesitation in classing them as 
belonging not only in different species, but as members of 
diverse ofenera. 

It must be regarded as unfortunate that the experiments 
which have been made on pigeons have been limited to their 
features of form, color, and slight peculiarities in their habits. 
If the breeders had sought to modify the intellectual parts 
with anything like the insistence which they have given to 
the development of these bodily peculiarities, we might now 
have a most valuable store of knowledge as to the limitations 
of animal minds. The facts gained in the breeding of the 
carriers show clearly that certain of the instincts of these 
birds can be readily modified. There is every reason to 
suppose that their mental capacities in other directions have 
something of the same pliability. 

Although the pigeon is the only free-flying form which has 
been won to intimate relations with man, there are numer- 
ous other species of these volant creatures which have been 
reduced to partial domestication, though they cannot be 
trusted to abide with us without being more or less completely 
caged. Experience has shown that by far the greater part of 
the arboreal birds may be kept and will breed in captivity. 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 



l«l 



From the host of these feathered creatures men have from 
time to time selected species which grace their habitations by 
their beauty, their song, or by the sympathetic relations 
which they form with their captors. Our successes in these 
efforts toward domestication of these birds have been most 




The English Pheasant 

eminent with those varieties which in their wilderness state 
have a well-developed social life, which abide in families or 
flocks, and have the pairing habit well affirmed. The reason 
for this has been already indicated. It is due to the sympa- 
thetic motive which is developed in such communal life, and 
is manifested in the friendly relations with each other which 
the creatures maintain. A eood instance of this is to be 



1 82 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

found in the crows and their kindred, a group of extremely 
sociable creatures, which are endlessly engaged in chattering 
communications with each other. All these forms are highly 
domesticable, and if for any reason they had proved perma- 
nently attractive to men they would doubtless have been 
brought into the state of willing captives. 

Although some of the free-flying or tree birds have been 
kept for their beauty alone, the greater part of them have 
commended themselves to man because of their voices. It 
is hardly necessary to tell the reader that the birds, of all 
animals, are most provided with means of expression through 
the voice. There is hardly a species which has not a greater 
range of notes or calls than the most vocal of our wild mam- 
mals, and many varieties are impelled to tuneful expression in 
a measure which no other creature, not even man, exhibits. 
In most cases these utterances are pleasing to the human ear, 
for they have the quality which we term musical. There- 
fore it is not surprising that the most of our captive birds 
have been chosen for their sons". 

It seems clear that the song of birds, like their calls — the 
two shade indefinitely into each other — expresses a sympa- 
thetic emotional consciousness of the actions going on about 
them, particularly of the life of their kind. In general these 
utterances are directed toward their kindred of their own 
species. In many cases, however, as among the imitative 
birds, the sounds which they utter indicate a curiously keen 
interest in the actions of their masters or other human affairs. 
The mocking-birds and some other species will, with great 
assiduity, endeavor to copy any sound which they happen 
to hear. I well remember watching: a mockinof-bird which was 
listening with rapt attention to the noise produced by a man 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 1 83 

sharpening a saw with a file. The poor bird would hearken 
with great attention until he thought he had caught the note, 
and then endeavor to reproduce it. As may be imagined, the 
measure of his success was small. He was fully conscious of 
his failure, and would beat himself about the cage in evident 
chagrin, returning again and again to try the hopeless task. 

Wherever the vocal organs of caged birds permit them to 
imitate human speech they are apt to devote a large part of 
their labor to this task, paying little attention to other less 
meaningful sounds. It appears to me that they perceive in a 
way the sympathetic character of language and therefore take 
a peculiar pleasure in copying it. It is hardly to be believed 
that they ever get a sense of the connotative value of words, 
but it is not to be doubted that they sometimes attain to a 
certain appreciation of the denotation of simpler phrases. 
In this task they do not exhibit as much sagacity as the dog, 
a creature which learns to understand the purport of rather 
complicated sentences. Nevertheless, their capacity for imitat- 
ing speech is a fascinating peculiarity, one which has greatly 
endeared them to bird fanciers. 

Those who have observed the talking birds have doubtless 
noted the fact that their capacity for remembering and uttering 
words varies greatly. I am inclined to think that in the same 
species some individuals can do such tasks several times as 
easily as others. If these speaking forms could be brought to 
breed in captivity, and something like the selective care were 
given to their development that has been devoted to the 
varieties of pigeons, we might well expect to attain very 
remarkable results. If anywhere in the animal world there is 
a chance to open communication by means of speech with the 
lower creatures, it should be here. 



1 84 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



At one time among our ancestors it was accustomed to 
make much use of the larger hawks in hunting. Curiously 
enough this amusement, more refined and elaborated than 
any other form of the chase, has gradually fallen into disuse 

among Europeans. 
' So far as I have 
been able to learn, 
the only region in 
which it is well 
preserved is in 
northern Africa, a 
country in which 
the custom was 
-probably intro- 
duced from Spain 
during the occu- 
pancy of that pen- 
insula by the 
Moors. From the 
literature of this 
art of h aw k i n e, 
even after we allow 
much for the exao^- 
geration of unob- 

The Falconer's Favorite - Peregrine Falcon 

servant men, it 
seems certain that the training of these fierce birds was car- 
ried to a point of singular perfection. The creatures learned 
to do their duty in a very skilful way, and they readily 
acquired habits of obedience, under circumstances of excite- 
ment, more perfect than those which we succeed in instilling 
in any animal but the dog. When we consider the natural 




DOMESTICATED BIRDS 1 85 

qualities of the hawk, and note that when well trained he flew 
at only the designated game, and came back to the master 
when a bit of hide or other lure was thrown into the air as 
a signal, we may fairly believe that the creature displayed an 
extraordinary fitness for receiving instruction. The facts are 
the more remarkable because these hawks were not bred in 
cages, but were taken from the wild nests ; so that there was 
none of that gradual accumulation of inheritances under the 
conditions of selection which have brought about the obedi- 
ence of our really domesticated animals. 

The remarkable way in which the art of hawking has 
disappeared from our civilization deserves more than a pass- 
ing notice, though it appears to be inexplicable. It is evident 
that it was a tolerably ingrained habit, at least among the 
English-speaking people, for it has left a very deep impress 
upon the language. There are far more phrases derived from 
the custom than can be traced to any other of the sportsman's 
arts. At least one of these collocations of words which has 
escaped from the minds of grown people still holds a place 
among the boys of this country. When two lads are fighting 
we often hear the bystanders say, by the way of encourage- 
ment to one of the contestants, " Give him jesse." The use 
of this curious phrase prevails in all parts of the United 
States, but after much inquiry I have failed to find a trace 
of it preserved in England. There seems to be little doubt 
that these words are due to a custom of beating a hawk which 
failed to do its duty with the thongs or jesses by which it was 
attached to the wrist of the falconer. Giving another jesse 
thus came to be equivalent to giving a person a strapping. 

Whatever may have been the reason for abandoning this 
beautiful and in a way noble sport, its disuse must be deemed 



1 86 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 






most unfortunate by all the students of animal intelligence, 
for it has deprived us of precious opportunities in the way of 
observations on the mental peculiarities which exist in a most 
interesting group of birds. In these days, when there is 
a fancy for reviving the customs of our forefathers, it 
might be well for some persons of leisure to give their atten- 
tion to restoring 
the arts of falconry. 
# E n o u g h of t h e 

practice and of the 
traditions is left to 
make it an easy 
task to reinstitute 
all the important 
parts of the custom. 
Moreover, those 
who essayed the 
matter would have 
access to a much 
greater range of 
rapacious birds 
than our forefath- 
ers, who had to 
content themselves with the limited number of wild spe- 
cies which inhabit the continent of Europe. Especially on our 
Western plains, where game-birds abound and the country 
lies wide open, sportsmen would find an admirable field in 
which to follow the bird they flew. Not only would the 
restoration of hawking give us a sport much more skilful 
and refined than the fox chase, but it would reintroduce the 
cultivation of the only creature which, having once been 




The Bandit's Brood 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 1 87 

brought to the service of man, has been permitted to return 
to its ancestral wild life. 

The most striking and by far the most interesting quality 
exhibited by our birds is found in their sympathetic motive. 
In this spiritual quality, so far as it relates to their own kind, 
the feathered creatures are clearly in advance of all other spe- 
cies, including even man. A single fact, one of great gener- 
ality, will serve to make this statement clear. Among the 
birds we find the only cases of true marriage which are known 
in the animal kingdom. In the greater number of the species 
the union is for a season, but among many it is for life. In 
the case of certain varieties of paroquets, the union is so 
indissoluble that, according to common report, a report which 
seems much better verified than the most of those concerning 
the habits of animals, neither member of the pair will survive 
the death of the other. Man, with all his striving towards 
a better social state, has, as a whole, not yet attained to the 
enduring affection for the mate which is evinced by the greater 
part of the birds. 

In this same connection, we may note that the aesthetic 
appreciation among the birds appears to have attained a far 
higher level than it has won in any other creatures. There 
can be little doubt that the exquisitely beautiful plumage, the 
unparalleled shapeliness of form and grace of carriage, as well 
as the melodies which are uttered by so many species, all owe 
their development to a process of sexual selection which has 
led the discerning females to prefer the more ornamental of 
the males who sought them as partners. If any one will 
examine the exquisite shapes and gradations of color which 
are exhibited in the tail of the peacock, or of the lyre-bird, or 
even the coloration of the game-cock, he may perhaps imagine 



1 88 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

how prodigious must be the development of the aesthetic 
sense in these species, in order that it may take account of 
every little betterment which leads towards more perfect 
beauty. As it will take the generations of aesthetes many 
generations before they are able to " live up to " the level 
of their culture which is attained by the peacock's tail, it is 
not unreasonable for us to hold that in the appreciation of 
simple beauty in form and in color, the birds are far ahead 
of ourselves. It must not be supposed that our aesthetic 
culture is to be reckoned below that of birds, though in our 
case the work embodies the delineation of ideas, while in the 
birds it is a matter of pure ornament. Nevertheless, taking 
the evidence which shows the way in which these creatures 
appreciate beauty in the three realms of form, color, and 
sound, it seems to me clear that while their intellectual 
life is low, their purely emotional experiences are probably 
more vivid than those of ordinary men. 

As the joy of life is, in the main, even in ourselves the 
result of emotional experiences, we may fairly reckon, even on 
a pi^iori ground, that the birds win a measure of happiness, 
though it be that of an unconscious kind, which is granted 
to no other living beings. Psychologically described, they 
might well be termed the group built for joy. Their bodies 
are, on the whole, the best constructed of all animals, except 
the insects. They suffer little from disease. We all see 
that their intercourse with each other is freer and merrier 
than that of other creatures. The wide range of their 
notes shows that in most forms they appreciate every little 
difference in the pleasure-giving changes of the day or the 
weather. They rejoice in the coming of each morning; they 
are sorrowful with the advent of each evening. They echo 



DOMESTICATED BIRDS 1 89 

the distress of their kind in a readier way than any other 
forms. He is indeed a poor naturaHst who overlooks this 
trait ; for however deeply he may have delved, he has not 
won the jewel unless he appreciates this element of an unend- 
ing joy which the bird-life continually offers him. From that 
life we may well believe that man is hereafter to derive 
some great and fruitful lessons. 



USEFUL INSECTS 

Relations of Man to Insect World. — But Few Species Useful to Man. — Little Trace of 
Domestication. — Honey-bees : their Origin ; Reasons for no Selective Work ; Habits 
of the Species. — Silkworms : Singular Importance to Man ; Intelligence of Species. — 

Cochineal Insect. — Spanish Flies. — Future of Man relative to Useful Insects. 

Although the relations of man to the insect world are 
prevailingly those of hostility, there are a few of these 
multitudinous creatures which have been more or less com- 
pletely adopted into his great society. Although not more 
than half a dozen out of the million or more species in this 
subkinordom have thus been brought to the uses of civiliza- 
tion, the forms are interesting not only for what they give, 
but for the promise of further contributions when this great 
problem of winning help from the insect world receives 
adequate consideration. 

As a whole, the insects are not well fitted to serve 
the needs of man. Owing to certain peculiarities in their 
organic laws they, fortunately for ourselves, are very limited 
in size. Although some of them afford savory food and 
are occasionally eaten by savages, and even by civilized 
folk when pressed by hunger owing to the famines which 
the invasions of these animals occasionally produce, they 
can never be of any value as sources of provisions, except 
through the stores which they accumulate in the manner of- 
the bees. All that we have won, or are likely to win, from 
this realm is from the filaments which the creatures spin, 
the wax or honey which they accumulate, the coloring or 



USEFUL INSECTS 191 

other matters which their bodies afford, or the help which 
they may give us in our struggle with invading species of 
their class. 

Probably the first insect to be brought into friendly 
relations with man was the honey-bee. This creature, like 
the most of our domesticated animals, is a native of the great 
continent of the Old World, though it has now been con- 
veyed to all the flowery lands of the world where the season 
is lone enoueh for it to win its harvest. In its wild as 
well as in its tame state the honey-bee dwells in one of the 
most perfect and highly elaborated of insect societies. It is 
a member of the group of membranous-winged insects known 
to naturalists as Hymenoptei'-a, an order which includes all the 
elaborate societies of the class except the colonies of white 
ants. It is characteristic of all these colonial insects that, 
from the experience of ages, they have learned the great 
principles of the division of labor and of profit sharing 
towards which mankind are now clumsily stumbling ; the 
ofreat work which their societies are able to do is accom- 
plished by a complete specialization of function and a perfect 
share in the commonwealth. So far has this elaboration 
gone, that in the bees the work of reproducing the kind is 
allotted to forms which do no labor ; all the work of the hive 
being effected by individuals which are sterile, and whose 
sole function it is to toil unendingly for the profit of the 
great household. 

While the greater part of the kindred of the bees either 
construct the nests for their young in the manner of our 
wasps or hornets, building them entirely in the open air, or 
excavate underground chambers in the fashion of our 
bumble-bees, our domesticated form at some time in the 



192 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

remote past adopted the plan of choosing for its dwelling- 
place some chamber in the rocks, or cavity in a hollow tree 
which could be shaped to the needs of a habitation. Owing 
to the size of these cavities, they were enabled to form 
societies composed of many thousands of individuals ; while 
the species which adopted nests, in other conditions, were 
much more limited as regards their numbers. Thus the 
bumble-bee, which abides underground, dwells in very small 
communities, probably for the reason that the conditions 
of the soil it inhabits make it difficult to excavate and 
maintain large rooms. It is this habit of resorting to 
hollow spaces, as well as the instinct to store up honey in 
wax cases, which has made the common bee valuable to 
man. 

At best the opportunities which the wilderness affords, in 
the way of fit dwelling-places for the swarm which goes forth 
from a hive, are much less than can readily be provided by 
art. In almost all cases the wild bees have to expend a 
great deal of labor in searching for a fit residence ; and after 
such is found it requires a great deal of toil and expenditure 
of the costly wax in order to shape the cavity so that it may 
comfortably accommodate the multitude, and be reasonably 
safe from the attacks of other insects. Thus it has come 
about that the bee has, in a way, welcomed the interference 
of man with his ancestral conditions ; and, though the species 
exists in the wildernesses of its native land, the domesticated 
varieties have so far taken up with man that in other 
countries they do not wander far from the limits of civiliza- 
tion. Now and then an uncared-for swarm which cannot 
find accommodations about the parent hive will betake itself 
to the wilderness ; though it generally continues to seek 



USEFUL INSECTS 1 95 

sustenance from the abundant flowers of the tilled fields 
where it finds species, such as clover and buckwheat, from 
which it has been long accustomed to win the harvest of 
pollen and honey. 

In North America the honey-bees, which were brought 
by the early settlers, and which had been kept on the frontier 
by the pioneers of our civilization, have always extended, in 
wild swarms, a little distance into the wilderness. But, at 
most, they appear to have wandered only for a few miles 
beyond the homestead, going no further away than would 
permit their use of the cultivated plants. The aborigines 
early learned to regard the insect as the avant courier 
of European men. When they came upon an individual of 
the species they always knew that some white man's dwelling 
stood nearby. Those who are familiar with the solitudes of 
our Appalachian forests must often have remarked, in the 
stillness of a summer day, the hum of a swarm from some 
forest or domestic hive in its search for a dwelling-place. 
Those who have followed up the movements of these migrat- 
ing colonies have had a chance to perceive how long is the 
search before they find a fit abiding place. Doubtless by far 
the greater part of these searchers for a home fail of their 
quest, and the wandering swarms perish without finding a 
suitable shelter. 

In certain kinds of woods, as, for instance, those occupied 
by pine trees or other species which do not develop spacious 
hollows in their trunks, and where there are no crannied 
rocks — all the swarms which seek habitations there are fore- 
doomed to destruction. If by chance the colonies wander 
too far, they generally find the wilderness so ill provided with 
plants which may furnish them with the sources of wax. 



19^ DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

honey, or other necessaries, that they cannot maintain their 
Hfe. Thus it is that the bee, though domiciled with us 
rather than domesticated, has become united in its fortunes 
with civiHzation. In this position they have shown a 
remarkable adaptation to extremely varied conditions. They 
can withstand any climate which permits the development of 
the vegetation to which they need have access, provided the 
ofrowinor season continues lone enough to accumulate their 
store. In the tropical lands they harvest so little honey that 
they are not profitable to man, and in the high north they 
need all their summer's accumulation to maintain them 
through the long winter. Thus, though they may range 
almost as far as man through the gamut of climates, they are 
profitable to their masters only in the middle latitudes. 
They commonly do not do well close to the sea, and cannot 
be kept on inconsiderable islands for the reason that they 
are, in their wanderings, likely to be lost in the waters. 

The bee, like the other social insects, evinces a wide range 
of instincts which are intimately related to the economy of the 
hive ; but these motives appear to be of an unchangeable char- 
acter. They show no tendency to undergo the modifications 
which we observe to take place in our birds and mammals 
when they are brought under the influence of man. The 
only case in which they show any distinct effect from their 
contact with man , is found in their evident recognition of 
those who care for them. They soon learn that their master 
is not to be feared, and, therefore, need not be resisted ; but, 
beyond this dumb acceptance of a situation, they exhibit no 
trace of sympathetic recognition of our kind. It is clear that 
their mental endowments, though considerable, are very much 
more remote from our own than are those of the vertebrated 



USEFUL INSECTS 197 

animals with which we have formed a friendly association. 
Moreover, the type of life of the creatures in a way excludes 
them from any kind of share in human society. Each of 
them is, from its birth to its death, entirely devoted to the 
interests of its little commonwealth. Every impulse of their 
being relates to the economy of their hive. While we know 
little about instinct, we know enough of its manifestations to 
state that the real unit of this species is not the individual 
insect, but the colony to which it belongs. The separate 
form is hardly more than a bit of machinery so arranged that 
it may operate at a distance from the engine of which it 
forms a part. On this account it appears to be impossible 
for us ever to attain to any kind of sympathetic relations 
with these creatures. 

Even more important than the bees are those insects 
which, in their immature state, yield us silk. The so-called 
silkworms, like the bees, originated in Asia, and have long 
been in the care of man. Beginning their experiments in 
spinning with the wool of animals and the various accessible 
vegetable fibres, men have ever been seeking materials 
which could serve them in the weaver's art. At one time 
or another they have tried an exceeding variety of materials ; 
in modern days more than a score of insects have been 
experimented with in the endeavor to obtain fibres which 
could be turned to use. So far, however, the Bombyx mori 
—the form which, as its specific name indicates, feeds upon 
the leaves of the mulberry tree — is the only one which 
proves really serviceable. The advantages of this species 
are found in a peculiar assemblage of qualities, each of 
which is necessary to make it fit for the ends it attains 
at the hand of man. 



198 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

The mulberry silkworm can readily be bred in confine- 
ment. The eggs are easily gathered and preserved, and are 
so readily kept that they may be sent the world about. At 
a given temperature they with infrequent failures hatch ; and 
if sufificiently fed with the fresh leaves of the mulberry, will 
in a short time attain to as perfect a development as though 
they grew, not in close rooms, but in the open conditions 
of the trees. When of adult size, the grubs proceed to spin 
themselves in, forming a thick cocoon composed of threads 
of a material which, though as soft as paste when emitted 
from the body, hardens so as to form a strong and even 
thread. If the insect be allowed to remain for a sufficient 
time in the cradle which it has spun for its second birth, 
the body within the chrysalis case will proceed in a manner 
to dissolve ; and In the milky fluid thus produced, where only 
faint traces of its former state remain, the beautiful image or 
perfect form will arise. In the economic use of the creature, 
however, except as far as a supply of eggs may be desired, 
it is necessary to prevent the completion of its development ; 
for in escaping from the chrysalis case, the butterfly cuts 
many of the delicate threads, so that the silk is made unser- 
viceable. It is necessary to wind it off before the insect 
escapes. In this part of the work we notice the most perfect 
adaptation of the creature to the needs of man. While the 
silk threads from the cocoons of other species which might 
prove of value cannot be easily reeled off, those of the silk- 
worm, when placed in hot water, readily separate, and can 
be gathered in a condition for spinning. Thus, while some 
success has been attained by carding the cocoons of other 
species, thereby making a fibre which has a certain utility, 
the silkworm alone yields material fitted for delicate fabrics. 



USEFUL INSECTS 20I 

At the present time in Europe, Asia, and America there 
are probably not far from ten milHon people who depend in 
large measure upon the product of the silkworm for their 
livelihood. Although the product of their industry and that 
of the insects conibined is not nearly as indispensable to 
man as those which are won from the hair of animals or the 
fibres of plants — for silk is a luxury rather than a necessity 
— the value of the work done by these humble creatures is 
greater than that effected by the largest of our domesticated 
animals, the elephant. If the philanthropic economist were 
forced to choose which of these creatures should pass from 
the earth, he would have to accept the loss of the greater 
and far nobler animal. 

So far as regards their intelligence, the silkworms are 
much below the level of the bees. Though they dwell in an 
aggregate way they have scarcely a semblance of social order, 
and are without the wide range of peculiar instincts which 
we invariably find among the commonwealth animals. The 
order of Lcpidoptcra, in which these creatures belong, though 
the most beautiful, appears to be from an intellectual point 
of view the least advanced of our insects. Their instincts 
are all on a low plane ; they have no kind of mutual labor, 
and however much advance we may make by selection in 
developing their bodies, there is no reason to expect that 
we shall affect their intelligences. 

The cochineal insect, a species which has the habit of 
feeding upon the cactus, is used for a dye stuff, for which 
service the brightly colored body is appropriated. Although 
the creature is deliberately planted wdiere it is to feed, and 
thus is in a way submitted to culture, it cannot fairly be said 
to have been entered in the domesticated circle of man. In 



202 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

a similar way the so-called Spanish fly — which really belongs 
amono- the beetles — whose ground-up bodies are used for 
producing blisters, is merely appropriated to our use with- 
out any process of subjugation. The fact remains that, so 
far as our dealings with the insect world have gone, we 
have really won but two of the million or more of forms to 
captivity ; and our relations with these have nothing of the 
humanized nature which marks our intercourse with truly 
domesticated creatures. 

Small as are the lessons which we may read from our 
experience with the honey-bee and the silkworm, they 
appear clearly to indicate that, while we may expect to do 
little with the intelligences of insects, we may fairly reckon 
on a great field for accomplishment in the way of changes 
in their bodily constitution. In the case of the bees the 
facts show us that in particular conditions of climate or 
other surroundings a certain amount of variation takes 
place, and by proper selection either of queens or swarms 
it may be possible considerably to extend the value of these 
animals. The task is beset with difficulties for the reason 
that, while in ordinary selective breeding we deal with indi- 
viduals, we have, as before remarked, in this species to 
regard the hive or colony as the unit and to make our 
selection with reference to the qualities of that colony as 
a whole. Nevertheless, with the constant advances in the 
skill of our economic selectionists, there is reason to expect 
that our bees may be progressively improved. On the 
other hand, there is the chance that the progress of chemical 
discovery may enable us at any time to manufacture honey 
in the artificial way and of a quality indistinguishable from 
that produced by domesticated bees ; in which case these 



USEFUL INSECTS 203 

captives, at best troublesome, though most interesting, will 
probably disappear from the human association. 

With the silkworms, variations can be more readily 
brought about ; for, as is the case with other animals, the 
individuals can be paired. The efforts at selection already 
made show that valuable characters can be thus accumulated, 
thoucrh not with the success which attends the efforts of a 
like nature made in the case of our domesticated mammals 
and birds. In common with other animals — indeed, we may 
say, with all organic life — the silkworms vary perceptibly 
in different parts of the world to which they may be taken. 
Thus, when reared in California it is said that this insect 
develops more strength than it exhibits in Europe ; and the 
eggs which it lays there produce stronger insects, which 
in turn yield larger cocoons than the individuals born in 
Italy or France. With such a basis for the selective art 
as the variations of this insect afford, there seems no rea- 
son why it should not afford a good field for the work 
of the breeder's art. 



THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 

Recent Understanding as to the Rights of Animals ; Nature of these Rights ; their Origin 
in Sympathy. — Early State of Sympathetic Emotions. — Place of Statutes concern- 
ing Animal Rights. — Present and Future of Animal Rights. — Question of Vivisec- 
tion. — Rights of Domesticated Animals to Proper Care ; to Enjoyment. — Ends of the 
Breeder's Art. — Moral Position of the Hunter. — Probable Development of the Pro- 
tecting Motive as applied to xVnimals. 

It is well to note the fact that, in considering the 
riorhts of the creatures below the level of man, we are deal- 
ing with a question which does not seem to have entered 
into the minds of the ancients. Such old phrases as " the 
merciful man is merciful to his beast " indicate that cruelty 
to the domesticated creatures was, in a way, reprobated by 
the ancients ; but not until well on in the present century 
do we find any indication that reason had come to the help 
of pity in an effort to frame rules having the weight of 
law and the support of sanctions, either those of public 
opinion or the more direct penalties of the courts, to limit 
the conduct of men towards the lower animals. The ereat 
tide of mercy and justice which marks our modern civilization 
had first to break down the grievous and strongly founded 
evils of human slavery. Having effected that great work, 
the sympathetic motives are moving on to a similar conflict 
with the moral ills which arise from an improper treatment 
of those slaves of a lower estate, the domesticated animals. 

It is impossible to see our position in relation to the 
matter of the rights of animals without lookino- .somewhat 



THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 205 

carefully into the intellectual and moral steps which have 
at length brought us to the consideration of the question. 
First let us note that while the rights of their fellows have 
been impressed on men by the precepts of religions, particu- 
larly by those of Christianity, the rules of conduct which 
ofuide us in our contacts with beincrs below the level of our 
species have never been determined by the canons of our 
faith, for the reason that they are the product of very modern 
conditions ; they are the thought of our own time. New as are 
these tenets, however, they may fairly be received as but the 
last though not the final expression of that most interesting 
of all natural series — the succession in the development of 
sympathy which, step by step in the progress of organic life, 
has led from the original dull insensitiveness of the lower 
animals upwards to the outgoing spirit of man. 

In the lower stages of animal life we find no traces of 
appreciation of the neighbor except those which necessarily 
relate to the selection and capture of food and perhaps to 
the selection of mates. Further on in the process of de- 
velopment we note the love of offspring, and, as a conse- 
quence of that love, the growth of the family sense, which 
rarely is maintained beyond the time when the young can 
shift for themselves. Among the species of the higher 
groups — certain insects, the greater part of the birds, and 
the nobler of the mammals — the instinct of the family is 
extended until it includes the tribe, or perhaps goes yet further 
and leads to a certain kindliness to all the individuals of 
the race. Thus it comes about that the individuals of many 
species below the level of man will respond to the cries of 
their kindred though they may never have had a chance to 
know them. There is in these cases a sympathetic bond that 



2o6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

binds the kind together. It is with this condition of the 
sympathies that the task of their further evolution is trans- 
ferred to man. Inheriting as he does the essential motives 
of the lower beings through which he came to his present 
estate, man proceeds to deal with them in a manner which is 
determined by the peculiar rational power which belongs 
to him. In place of the blind following of the emotions 
which characterizes the sympathetic movements of the lower 
animals, we find that even among the most primitive and 
lowly savages rules of conduct are instituted which serve to 
direct the ways in which the individual shall act with regard 
to his fellows. In almost all cases these rules are much 
intermingled with the religion of the people ; usually they 
rest upon a body of advancing public opinion which amplifies 
the motives and, in turn, is enlarged by their growth. As 
time goes on and the folk attain the stage of records, these 
rules of conduct become definite laws which at first are 
based on religious ordinances ; but in time they are, in the 
latest stage of social growth, brought into the state of ordi- 
nary statutes which, while they may have some religious 
sanction, are supported by the machinery of the secular 
government. 

After the first rude work of shaping the body of ancient 
experience into laM'^ was done, there remained the larger 
and more difficult task of continuing the development of 
the sympathetic motives with a corresponding amplification 
of customs and statutes so that the steps of advance should 
be duly embodied in these rules of conduct. The stages of 
this purely human attainment have been slowly taken, the 
onward way has been effectively won but by few peoples. 
A part of the slowness in advance in the enlargement of 



THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 207 

the sympathetic motives beyond the stage which has been 
attained in the Hfe below the human grade is to be accounted 
for in the fact that no sooner are laws formed than they 
become in a way sacred. If they be cast in the religious 
mould their sanctity may be such that they are almost be- 
yond the reach of modification ; even when they are secular 
the reverence for the wisdom of the forefathers naturally 
leads men to regard them as the ark of safety. Thus it 
has come about that the codification of the ancient sym- 
pathies, won by experience in the pre-human time and in 
the early life of man, has led to the institution of a barrier 
which makes further advance a matter of difficulty — one 
which, in the case of most peoples, binds them firmly to 
the past, arresting their sympathetic development at a point 
which it had attained when their laws were framed. This 
is, indeed, the position of nearly all the peoples except those 
of our own Aryan race. 

When the conditions of a people are fortunately such 
that they may continue their sympathetic growth, they pro- 
ceed to carry onward the process of sympathetic enlargement, 
modifying their laws to suit the gains in understanding which 
come with this growth. It may be noticed that the develop- 
ment takes place most readily where the rules of conduct 
are embodied in statute law ; for this law, being the evident 
result of human action, is manifestly alterable in a way that 
cannot be taken when the prescriptions are supposed to rest 
on divine commands. Under such conditions of statute law 
men are freer to advance than they can possibly be where 
the rules of action are in the form of revered precepts, 
such as guide the peoples who are accustomed to base their 
action on the books which they esteem as sacred. Endowed 



2o8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

with this element of freedom, the peoples of our own Aryan 
race — and, fortunately, the most advanced of all its varieties, 
the English-speaking part of the folk — have, by the divine 
impulse towards moral advancement, been led to make a great 
extension of the sympathetic motives. The first step in this 
direction seems to have been towards the mitigation of the 
horrors of war, which of old meant the slavery or slaugh- 
ter of the prisoners. Under the dictates of the developing 
spirit of mercy and without written law, these brutal actions 
have been limited until the dogs of war are allowed to rend 
only in the hour of battle. In this day the man who slays 
the wounded or robs the dead is esteemed an outlaw. The 
same beneficent motive was next extended towards human 
slaves. In this matter English people led ; and to them it 
was almost altogether due that this evil has come nearly to 
an end except among the Mohammedans, who are bound as 
in chains to their sacred books and cannot win their way 
to progress through statutes. In a like manner, in the care 
of the poor, of prisoners for debt, and even of malefactors, 
our English folk on both sides of the Atlantic have led in 
the ongoing towards a higher moral estate. 

The last great excursion of sympathy which has character- 
ized the English Aryans — one dating its beginning to this 
century — is that relating to the rights of our domesticated 
animals. This has come about, like the other movements, in 
a way unconsciously. Prophetic spirits have seen beyond 
the vision of their fellows ; they have given their messages, 
which have found an echo in the souls of men. The motive 
originated in the recognition of the essential likeness of the 
minds of the lower animals to our own. But it has been 
greatly reenforced by the teachings of the naturalists to the 



THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 209 

effect that all the life of this sphere is akin in its origin 
and that our subjects are not very far away from our own 
ancestral line. 

It is characteristic of sympathetic movements that, while 
they are slowly prepared for, their final development is very 
rapid. Thus it has come about that within one hundred 
years the conception of the rights of animals has advanced 
with almost startling rapidity. No other moral gain has been 
made with such speed or has so rapidly become a part of the 
property of civilized man. The steps are those which have 
been taken in all the other great moral advances : at first there 
were but a few who, in the manner of the skirmishers of 
armies, set the standards far on in the new ground ; gradually 
the less ardent win their way to them, only to be led the further 
by their natural guides. As the great advance is still making, 
it is difficult to see how far it may attain ; it is, however, easy 
to recognize some of the important gains and to foretell the 
path if not the field of full accomplishment of the conquest. 
A century ago a man, so far as the law was concerned, owned 
his living chattels as he did the inanimate things of his prop- 
erty. He could torture or slay them as whim or malice 
might dictate ; there were no limitations by statute, and public 
opinion, where it might reprobate, was too weak to influence 
his conduct. Now the statute books of all countries which 
are moving in the path of moral advance show that public 
opinion has attained the point where it begins to form.ulate 
itself in statutes which restrict the relations of men to their 
domesticated animals — or, in other words, endow them with 
definite rights. He may, of course, force them to do him 
their fit service ; he may at his need slay them ; but he must 
exercise his authority without brutality ; he must, in form at 
14 



2IO DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

least, be merciful unto his beasts. With this limitation the 
riofhts of domesticated animals beg^an to exist. 

At first sight it may seem unreasonable to found the 
rights of dumb beasts on the embodiment of public opinion 
in the law, and this for the reasons that many persons have 
held, that rights have an establishment in the ultimate moral 
constitution of the world. It may be granted that even 
before man or even life existed in the universe there were 
certain logical moral principles which were destined to take 
shape when the creatures to which they were adapted came 
to be ; but such speculations are fanciful and do not much 
concern those who are dealing with the problems of the 
barnyard. We may, to bring the matter nearer, say that 
the slave of half a century ago had a right to be free ; but 
this right, in all practical senses, meant only that certain 
people very much disliked to see him enthralled. 

So far, by successive stages, first by accumulated public 
opinion and then by its embodiment in statutes, we have won 
a measure of protection to subjugated animals which tends 
to save them from the extremer forms of cruelty. The ques- 
tion now is as to the advances which may be made in the 
time to come. It is evident that these advances, so far as the 
domesticated species are concerned, will have to be limited 
by the needs of man. We cannot ever expect to have the 
reverence of the Hindoo for the lower animals, for the reason 
that his state of mind is based on the preposterous supposi- 
tion that the beast contains the spirit of a man on its way 
through the cycles towards perfection. We must continue 
to burthen, tax, and slay ; but we may fairly be required to 
inflict no unnecessary suffering. In this process of amend- 
ment we shall undoubtedly before long come to the point 



THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 2il 

where we shall demand that these animals shall be lodged 
in a wholesome manner and so fed that they may be fit for 
their tasks. We may, in a word, consider their well being so 
far as it is consistent with the well being of mankind, and in 
so doing we shall demand some personal sacrifice from the 
owner where such is clearly demanded to maintain the prin- 
ciple of the law. 

As in all other great sympathetic movements, the leaders of 
the advance in the matter of the humane treatment of animals 
are occasionally unreasonable in their demands — It may well 
be held that the prophet has to be unreasonable in order 
to attain his oroal ; hence it has come about that the demands 
of these admirable people are often beyond the bounds of 
things that are practicable. Fire-horses, however ill, should 
be made to do their duty, even if it costs them any amount 
of suffering ; even as the artillerymen should, if the occasion 
calls for it, rush their teams, though they know that the poor 
beasts are to die at the goal. In a word, the only and 
supreme test of our relations to these subjects is the well 
being of man considered from the higher point of view. 
This principle we apply to our own kind ; we are justified 
in like action in case of the brutes. In this consideration, 
the offence to the feelings of man which is caused by any 
act of cruelty, however necessary, deserves its due weight. 

The most serious matter connected with the question of 
the rights of animals which is now under discussion relates 
to the use of these creatures in the investigative work of the 
naturalist, or in the repetition of the processes and results 
of those inquiries before students. Although all judicious 
people are likely to welcome the exceeding reprobation with 
which many philanthropists visit the vivisectionists, and this 



212 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

for the reason that the state of mind shows a rapid advance 
of the sympathetic motive, they are likely to question the 
sound foundation of the objections that are raised to experi- 
ments with animals, made for the purpose of discovering or 
displaying the truths of nature. 

So far as the work of research into the phenomena of life 
is concerned, there can be no question as to its importance 
or as to the fitness of sacrificing the lives of the lowlier creat- 
ures in any way that may be necessary for the advancement 
of knowledge. In the last half century there has been an 
improvement in the treatment and prevention of diseases so 
great as almost to defy adequate description. To take only 
the last of these precious gains, that in relation to the treat- 
ment of diphtheria, the gain has been such that although 
the process is not past its experimental stage the reduction 
of the mortality in hospitals where the remedy is used has 
lowered the death rate from above fifty to about fifteen per 
cent, of the cases. Yet this result rests upon a vast amount 
of experiment which has cost suffering and life to the lower 
animals ; and to produce the remedy which is used, horses 
have to be innoculated with the disease, and thereby much 
pain is inflicted upon them. Weighed as against the life of 
a human being, a host of the lower creatures must count as 
nothing. As all human advancement depends upon the dis- 
semination of knowledge, it is difficult to see any objection, 
from the point of view of justice, to the use of the lower 
creatures to accomplish this end. The only real point in 
the matter is as to the effect of such scenes on the minds of 
young people ; yet they have to be accustomed to behold the 
processes of destruction of life which are everywhere going 
on about them. The gardener maintains his work by endless 



THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 213 

slaying. Our tables bear the products of the slaughter- 
houses. While the anatomist's work may be revolting, it is 
only so because his tasks are done deliberately and for a 
purpose that is not yet properly appreciated. 

It is a curious fact that many a person who enjoys hunting 
or fishing, and who slays or maims with much pleasure and to 
no substantial profit, is horrified to see a student dissecting 
a living frog, guinea-pig, or cat, in order that he may learn 
new truths or himself behold what others have discovered. 
Of the two aims, momentary pleasure or intellectual profit, 
which is the nobler? In which work is the mind the most 
likely to become careless as to the rights of the dumb beast ? 
To my understanding, the present turn of sympathetic peo- 
ple against vivisection indicates that the movement of the 
emotions has, as is often the case, been diverted from the 
fittest path. So far from natural science tending in any way 
towards cruelty. It has been the very guide in the develop- 
ment of the modern affection for living beings. By showino- 
something of the marvels of their structure and history, it 
has increased in a way no other influence has ever done the 
conception which we form as to their dignity and the wonder- 
ful nature of their history. It is in the true interest of mercy 
to disseminate in every way we can knowledge as to the 
real nature of animals, leaving this knowledge to bring forth 
the good fruit which it ever bears. In this connection it 
should moreover be said that the naturalist, like the surgeon. 
Instinctively seeks to make his work as little painful as may 
be to the subjects of his experiments. In almost all cases, 
the animal Is made unconscious. Moreover, all we know of 
the life of the lower animals leads us to suppose that while 
they suffer much as we do, their pains are of a physical sort, 



214 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

and unassociated to any great extent with the large fears and 
anticipations which in the case of man form so considerable a 
part of his torment when in face of death. 

The question of vivisection is but a part, indeed a very 
small part, of the much larger problem as to the relation of 
men to the lower life which is about them in their fields and 
in the wilderness. An approximate census of the species 
now on the earth shows that the number is between two and 
three million. In the presence of this host, we have to rec- 
ognize that each of the innumerable individuals in its lifetime 
is a record of toil and pain the history of which extends 
backward to the beeinninsfs of life. In this wonderful livinof 
world man has trodden ruthlessly, for the reason that he has 
no sense as to the dignity of the field. In the manner of a 
vandal, he has slain for profit or sport. He has been so 
effectual a destroyer that species, genera, and even families 
of animals have been ruthlessly swept away. The revelation 
of natural science, of the men of the knife who are so hated 
by some well-meaning but misdirected people, have now and 
only in our day brought us to a point where the sense of 
nature in its organic aspect begins to penetrate the minds 
of men. The revelation is so vast in its contents and its 
imports, the conceptions which rest upon it are so greatly 
enlarging to the human soul, that \ve may be sure of the 
wide and swift extension of the new light. It cannot be 
questioned that the clearer insight will rapidly change the 
attitude of men toward all living beings. We can in a way 
discern some of the conceptions as to the rights of the other 
life which will be enforced on mankind. 

It is likely that the first step into the new field of human 
duty, due to our better understanding as to our place in 



THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 215 

nature, will be in the direction of a greater care as to our 
domesticated forms. While we must continue to make their 
lives subserve our own, we may well insist that they should 
be properly housed, and have what it may be possible to 
afford them in the way of their primitive joys, which come 
from the sun, the air, and their natural food. No one who 
has seen a lono^-stabled horse made free of a field can have 
failed to note the intense pleasure which he takes in return- 
ing to something like his natural conditions. Many a cow 
stable with its foul conditions inflicts more and more endur- 
ino- torments than all the vivisectionists that some missfuided 
philanthropists are fighting; yet because of the novelt}'' of the 
naturalist's work these attend to the new scene and neg^lect 
the ancient abuse. Among these evils which are to be cor- 
rected we may also account that which arises from the un- 
guided development of what are called fancy breeds. Thus 
among our horned cattle, the Jerseys have been brought to 
a point where, from the iniquitous inbreeding, which is 
against what may be called the morality of nature, they are 
fearfully subjected to tuberculosis. The punishment for this 
insensate performance comes back upon mankind in the dis- 
semination of consumption ; but unhappily it does not visit 
the people who are responsible for the development of this 
breed. A like, though less considerable, evil is shown in 
the fancy breeds of clogs, pigeons, and some other petted 
animals, where for amusement and as an indication of his 
power man has raised up many decrepit and sickly varieties, 
which are not likely to have a fair share in the pleasure of 
life which their natural breeding insured them. 

The observant naturalist of the field has the sense — at 
least he has it if he be endowed with a little imagination — of 



2l6 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

the immense pleasure which Hfe gives to most wild animals. 
That instinctive, and in its foundations utterly irrational and 
animal joy which men have, or should have, in their day, 
is part of the birthright of all sentient beings. As yet we 
have not recognized that this privilege of enjoyment should 
be confessed. We do not hesitate to slay or maim for mere 
sport. It is true that some of the ancient forms of this 
sport, such as bull-baiting and cock-fighting, have been con- 
demned, but the best of men go afield with the gun to slay 
for pleasure. In a measure they keep up the pretence that 
they are in some way contributing to the needs of the 
larder, but so far as needs are concerned the pretence is 
mostly idle. It seems to me clear that in shaping our 
sympathetic relations towards animals in the light of our 
present knowledge, the huntsman will soon become un- 
known in civilized life. So long as men looked upon ani- 
mals in the childish, ignorant way, viewing them as utterly 
commonplace things, hunting or fishing, for the reason that 
they rested on a foundation of ancient emotions, might well 
be indulged in. But to the man who knows what science 
has to teach him, and who discerns the marvels which the 
animal form enfolds, the destruction of such objects, except 
for need's sake, is sure to be painful. I judge this from my 
individual experience. In my youth I was very fond of 
hunting, and could even wring the necks of wounded birds 
without trouble of mind. A better sense of what life means, 
a sense which is no better than that to which all educated 
men are soon to attain, has made such work very repulsive 
to me. 

When the knowledo-e of our time is so brouorht down 
among the masses of men that it may afford the foundations 



THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS 217 

for appropriate enlargement of the sympathies, the result will 
doubtless be a great movement towards enlargement in pub- 
lic opinion which credits the lower life with what we term 
rights. The most important result of this movement will 
be the creation of a sense of duty by this life. It is said 
of Mohammedans that they hesitate to tread upon a bit of 
paper lest it bear the name of God. We know now full 
well that every living creature in this world bears the stamp 
of a Providence which has acted from all time, and that we, 
so far as our own advancement will permit, are morally 
bound to allow this life to go forward on the appointed 
way. 



THE PROBLEM OE DOMESTICATION 

The Conditions of Domestication ; Effects on Society ; Share of the Races of Men in the 
Work. — Evils of Non-Intercourse with Domesticated Animals as in Cities ; Remedies. — 
Scientific Position of Domestication ; Future of the Art. — List of Species which may 
Advantageously be Domesticated. — Peculiar Value of the Birds and Mammals. — Impor- 
tance of Groups which tenant High Latitudes. — Plan for Wilderness Reservations ; 
Relation to National Parks. — Project for International System of Reservations. — Nature 
of Organic Provinces ; Harm done to them by Civilized Men. — Way in which Reser- 
vations would Serve to Maintain Types of the Life of the Earth ; how they may be 
Founded. — Summary and Conclusions. 

The advance of mankind from the primitive savagery 
has been accompHshed in many ways. Among the various 
paths of onward and upward going, however, we trace three 
which have served greatly to secure the elevation of our 
estate. First of all, culture came through the use of the 
hands in the development of the simpler arts. Next, these 
arts led men to search the stores of the wilderness and of the 
under earth for materials which could serve them in their 
advancing crafts. The third important stage in their ongoing 
was attained when they began to subjugate the animals and 
plants of the wilds, bringing the creatures to abide in and 
about the households. Although in general this was the last 
great step to be taken in the beginnings of civilization, it was 
on many accounts the most important. 

Until men began to domesticate the forms of the wilder- 
ness, it was impossible for them to rise above the grade of 
savages. Their supply of food was necessarily in such a 
measure limited that their societies had to remain small and 



THE PROBLEM OE DOMESTICATION 219 

they were given to much wandering to and fro over the earth. 
Moreover, they had only the strength of their own hands for 
all the work of life. It was not until our kind began to form 
a society of other species about their homes that the founda- 
tions of civilizations were firmly established. The home, 
indeed, may fairly be said to be the product of the conditions 
which the process of domestication brought about. As dis- 
tinguished from the temporary hut of primitive men, it repre- 
sented the stability which was induced by the care of the 
plants and animals which man had domiciled about him. 

With every step upward in the organization of society we 
find that the number and efficiency of these subjugated 
creatures increases. Our American aborigines in their primi- 
tive state commanded only the dog and three or four plants, 
yet with this scant help they had already won beyond the 
lowest savagery and were at the threshold of barbarism. In 
our more civilized societies of to-day we find the products of 
near a hundred animals and about a thousand plants as 
elements of commerce, and each year sees some gain in the 
number of creatures which we make tributary to our desires. 

So far as we can discern, the relations of primitive savages 
to the animal life about them is on the whole more friendly 
than is that of cultivated men. It is true that the savage 
looks to the creatures of the wilderness for the greater part 
of his needs. He slays them, not at all in sport, but for the 
profit they may afford. Moreover, in most cases, his imagina- 
tion endows these wild creatures with a spirit like his own. 
He often adopts them, in his religious worship, placing his 
tribe under the protection of one or another, as some of our 
own people do themselves under the protection of particular 
saints. The effect of domestication when man comes to have 



220 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

his own separate estate in animal life is to separate men 
from the creatures of the wilderness. "Wild" and "tame" 
come to be terms having a meaning which the savage does 
not recogrnize, and this meaning- has with the advance of 
culture become intensified, until to most men the only creat- 
ures entitled to protection are those which have been made 
subject to man. 

At first the process of domestication concerned only useful 
animals or plants, those which would take a part in our 
industries. Rapidly, however, these creatures have been 
adopted with the view to the £esthetic satisfaction which 
they might afford. Quite half of the number of species 
which have come under human control have been tamed 
mainly if not altogether because of the charms which they 
possess. If we reckon flowering plants in the category, by 
far the greater number of our captives have been brought 
to us because of their beauty. 

The work of domestication has in the main been effected 
by our own Aryan race. Out of the total number of ani- 
mals and plants which have been made captives, probably 
more than two-thirds have been brought into subjection 
by the European Aryans or by the folk whom they have 
profoundly affected with their civilizing motives. The dis- 
position to win goods from the wilderness is in effect a fair 
test of those qualities in a people which give them domi- 
nance : we may indeed roughly measure the qualities of 
diverse folk by a variety of conquests of this kind, which 
they have made. The reason for this relation is plain. Suc- 
cess, whether it be of the individual or of the race, depends 
in large measure upon forethoughtfulness, on a disposition 
to study as to where profit may be had, and intelligently to 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 221 

seek accessions of strength by experiments in domestication. 
Each of these winnings from the wilderness represented by 
our domesticated animals or plants has been painfully and 
laboriously gained. The men who did the tasks were not 
creatures of the day, but foresightful beyond the average of 
mortals. 

In a large wa}' the work of domestication represents one 
of the modes of action of that sympathetic motive which 
more than any other has been the basis of the highest 
development of mankind. Ordinary men of the low grade 
are content to slay, or otherwise rudely gain what value they 
find in the wild creatures. Only the higher grades of men 
perceive much of the charm in the inhabitants of the wilder- 
ness, or desire to win them to their homes. If our conquests 
from the wilds were limited to the grossly profitable life 
alone, we might say that interest only had determined the 
work of subjugation ; but as soon as men escape from their 
primitive state, even while in their general motives they are 
still essentially barbarians, they cultivate flowers and derive 
a keen pleasure from their company. They domesticate 
birds which are valuable only for the pleasures which their 
presence lends to human abodes. This action clearly shows 
that the element of sympathy, that love for the other life 
which in any way fixes the attention, has had much to do 
with this work of brino-ins: other beino-s into association 
with our own lives. 

Not only is the motive which has led our race to such 
extensive conquests over the wild nature in itself sympa- 
thetic, but the process of winning these creatures from the 
wilderness has served effectively to extend and amplify this 
same impulse. One of the best features of agricultural life 



222 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

consists in the great amount of care-taking which it imposes 
upon its followers. The ordinary farmer has to enter into 
more or less sympathetic relations with half a score of animal 
species and many kinds of plants. His life, indeed, is 
devoted to ceaseless friendly relations with these creatures, 
w^hich live or die at his will. In this task his ancient savage' 
impulses are slowly worn away, and in their place comes the 
enduring kindliness of cultivated men. When we compare 
the state of mind of the hunter with that of the care-takinof 
soil-tiller, we see the vast scope and influence which this work 
of domestication has effected in our kind. To it perhaps 
more than to any other cause we must attribute the civil- 
izable and the civilized state of mind. 

Although no discreet person will venture to determine the 
relative weig^ht which should be oriven to the influences which 
have made for civilization, there can be no doubt that the 
care of domesticated animals has been one of the most potent 
of these agents. Not only has this employment served to 
develop the motives of care-taking that result in the post- 
ponement of the momentary satisfaction of indolence or of 
hunger for the prospect of security or wealth to come, but it 
has served to arouse and broaden the sympathies given men, 
that humane spirit without which the best of our higher 
culture cannot be attained. If this view be correct, we may 
find in it a good reason for regretting the increasing devel- 
opment of cities, a reason which is more definite than the 
most of those which have been urgfed aeainst the growth 
of great towns. Statistics seem to indicate that people are 
as healthy, as long lived, and on the whole no more given to 
vice and crime in a well-ordered urban life than they are on 
the farms. It is certainly easier to give them the formal 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 223 

education of the schools in the dense than in the scattered 
condition. There can be no doubt, however, that the practi- 
cally complete separation of the most of our cities from all 
educative contact with the ancient companions and helpers 
of men brings about an omission of an element in culture 
that may entail serious consequences. 

The question arises as to what can be clone to diminish 
the evils which come from the total separation of a large 
part of our people from the humanizing influences due to 
the care of animals. How general this separation is may be 
judged from the fact that so far as I have been able to find 
in the manufacturing towns of Massachusetts not one child 
in thirty ever knew what it is to care for any creature, save 
those of its kind. And even in a well-conditioned place like 
Cambridge, the proportion of those who have any educative 
contact with animals probably does not exceed one in fifteen. 
I do not reckon the mere chance playing with a dog or cat 
as serving the need ; the real service is when the person has 
a sense of responsibility for the life of the animal. To bring 
about this relation in the ordinary conditions of a town is 
usually impossible. Something can, however, be accom- 
plished by various expedients. 

In the lowest state of townspeople it is out of the ques- 
tion to give the children any pets whatever. Even caged 
birds cannot or should not be accommodated in the cheaper 
grade of lodging-houses. Wherever the animals are in 
separate houses it is often possible for children to have some 
contact with sympathetic animal life. In these conditions 
our cocks and hens are the best creatures to rear. They are 
the most attractive of all our domesticated birds ; they do 
better than any other forms of economic value in narrow con- 



2 24 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

ditions, and, what is of importance for the end in view, they 
contribute a share of food, so that a boy may have from 
them some experience with the economic relation of animals 
to men. 

Some persons who have observed the advancing process 
of destruction of the natural world may have been brought to 
consider the change as in the necessary and inevitable order 
which comes with the higher development of man. They 
may welcome — indeed, some evidently do welcome— the 
chance that the ancient system may utterly disappear, and 
all the earth become fields and garden places tenanted only 
by those forms that man may have chosen to be his com- 
panions. To many people who have a keen impression as to 
the importance of man in the great economy, and no clear 
sense of his relation to the natural order, this possibility is 
doubtless attractive. It is not so to those who have orained 
a clear idea of the place of man and the conditions of his 
ongoing. 

There is reason to expect that the modern gains in the 
cheapness and speed of transportation may before long bring 
about a material chano-e in the housing- of the laborincr 
classes of our cities, so that they may be able to dwell in 
somewhat rural conditions. In this way we may hope to 
see these people once again brought where they may receive 
a fuller share of the influences which have served so well 
to lift our race to its elevated moral station. Working to 
the same end is the spirit which is leading many manu- 
facturers to place their establishments in the country, where 
they can control the mode of life of the employees and their 
families. Against the growth of the factory towns with 
their sordid conditions, we may with pleasure set these rural 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 225 

workshops where the capitalists are doing the best they can 
to better the mode of living of the people who are under 
their charge. In this good work it may well be possible to 
include a share of contact with the soil and with domesti- 
cated animals. In this system of isolated factories we may 
perhaps hope to find the way out of the perplexities which 
the present condition of our industries have imposed on our 
civilization. 

Up to our present half-century the process of winning 
animals and plants to domestication, and of improving 
them after they had been thus won, has been in its 
nature a matter of haphazard. Here and there, as men 
have seen creatures which promised in captivity to afford 
either pleasure or profit, they have endeavored to convert 
them to use. In some cases the effort has been made with 
some patience and steadfastness of purpose. If the creature 
yielded quickly to the needs of a new life which it was 
sought to impose upon him, he became a member of man's 
family. If its wilderness motives were strong, the effort to 
domesticate was soon abandoned. The greater part of these 
efforts to win animals and plants into alliance with our race 
have been made with the creatures which were native in 
the wildernesses about our ancestral dwelling-places. Occa- 
sionally from distant lands important gains have been made, 
especially among the food-giving plants ; but all the animals 
of any importance which have been adopted by the Aryan 
people were originally natives of the lands in which that race 
has dwelt. 

It is a remarkable fact that no sooner does a wild animal 
or plant become intimately associated with man, than it at 
once departs more or less widely from its ancieat type. Our 



2 26 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

conquests from the vegetable world have to a great extent 
so far lost their orio-inal character that we can no loneer 
determine the species from which they sprang. Botanists 
cannot find the wild forms which have given us the cabbage, 
wheat, and most other small grains, and a host of other 
important varieties. So, too, the origin of our dogs is as yet 
unsolved and bids fair ever to remain a mystery. In addition 
to this changed character which we observe in the forms of 
domesticated animals and plants alike, we note that the 
mental characteristics of the former underofo vast alterations. 
The creatures, in a way, take the tone of civilization, and 
to a great extent abandon those ancient habits of fear and 
rage which were essential to their life in the wilderness. 
The intellectual condition of our dogs shows us that the 
creatures may be progressively educated — in a word, that 
man may put into them something of his human quality. 
In the case of the dog, the longest possessed and most 
familiar to our households of all our captives, the mental 
change which has come, partly by selection, from associ- 
ation with man has gone so far that the species may be 
fairly said to have replaced its pristine motives with those 
which it has derived from ourselves. In many cases it 
has become, so far as its ways are concerned, even more 
man than dog. 

Although the physical and mental educability of animals 
when brought into companionship with man is an old subject 
of remark, and one of the most interesting features which they 
exhibit, it was not until the doctrine of descent by variation 
of species from other related forms became established, that 
we had a chance to see the vast possibilities of accomplish- 
ment which are presented to us by our domesticated creat- 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 227 

ures. It is true that the breeder's art is old and that men 
have felt the subjugated animals to be almost like clay in the 
potter's hands, but except in a small and rather careless way 
with the dogs, little attention has been given to the develop- 
ment of the intelligence of these captives. The success which 
we have obtained with this animal has been accomplished by 
a selective process, but one which has been almost as blind in 
its operation as the choice which acts in the natural world. 
For thousands of years men have preferred the dogs which 
manifested a sympathy with them, and the result is a creature 
which, though derived from a very brutal ancestry, has in its 
way as intense affections as human beings. Now and then 
they have chosen deliberately to develop some mental pecul- 
iarity of the animal which would be of service in hunting, and 
the effect of this care is to be noted in the considerable 
variety and perfection of mental development which the 
sporting dogs exhibit. In the main, however, the interest of 
our dog fanciers has been limited to the physical features of 
the species ; nothing like a deliberate effort to ascertain how 
far the development of their mental parts could be carried 
has ever been essayed. In no other field of human endeavor 
of anything like equal importance has there been so little 
understanding applied to the tasks. 

Now that we are beginning to know something of the 
laws of inheritance, it is high time for us deliberately to con- 
sider what our relations to the organic world are hereafter 
to be, and how we can guide ourselves in these relations by 
the light of modern learning. It is in the first place clear 
that the subjugation of the earth which necessarily accom- 
panies the development of civilization, inevitably tends to 
sweep away a large part of the organic life which is not 



2 28 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

adopted and protected by man. Already, with the mere 
beginnings of this culture, we find that several of the large 
beasts and birds and a number of plants have been destroyed. 
New as civilization is on this continent, it has already brought 
the moose and the buffalo to a point where they are on the 
verge of extinction, and in the Old World the wild ancestors 
of the horse and the bull have quite disappeared from the 
wildernesses. Within a few centuries the greater birds, the 
Dinornis and Epiornis, as well as the interesting Dodo, have 
vanished from the southern isles which they inhabited. In the 
century to come we can foresee that this process of effacement 
of the ancient life will go on with accelerated velocity. 

It seems inevitable that man should play the part of a 
destroyer. It is his place to break down the ancient order 
determined by what we call natural forces and in its stead to 
set a new accord in which the economy of the earth will be in 
a great measure controlled by his intelligence. Even those 
who most keenly sympathize with the wilderness life, are not 
likely to object to the changes which are necessary to open 
the way for this new dispensation. They may fairly ask, how- 
ever, that hereafter the displacement of the ancient life shall 
be brouorht about with foresig^ht and with the exercise of the 
utmost care in minimizing the sacrifices which we are called 
on to make. Naturalists may fairly ask men to remember 
that each of these species which we are forced to destroy 
represents the toil and pains of unimaginable ages, and that 
when these creatures are swept away they can never be recov- 
ered. Whatever new species may come, by processes of 
evolution from the life which remains after we have done our 
will with the wilderness, we shall never see again the forms 
which have passed away. 



THE PROBLEM OE DOMESTICATION 229 

It is the worst feature of the destruction which man is 
bringing- upon the organic species that the assault is most 
effective on those varieties which are most interestine both 
from an intellectual and an economic point of view. To take 
only the case of the great birds which have recently been 
swept from the earth, we see clearly that we have with them 
lost precious opportunities for enlarging our understanding 
of nature and have at the same time been deprived of the 
chance to domesticate creatures which would most likely have 
proved of much economic value. With each of these species 
which disappears we lose what may be a precious chance of 
adding to the small store of animals or plants which may 
contribute to the well being of our kind. These considera- 
tions make it plain that it is our duty by our civilization, to 
do all in our power to save these species and at the same 
time to essay their domestication, for only when under the 
protection of man can they be regarded as insured from 
destruction. 

The task of brino-inor wild creatures Into our domestic 
fold is one of very varied difficulty. Many plants are easily 
reconciled to the conditions of our fields and gardens: they 
may be said to welcome the care of man which insures them 
some protection from the fierce contention with other life or 
with the elements to which they are exposed in their natural 
conditions. Only here and there is it necessary by careful 
breeding to develop domesticated habits to the point where 
the forms will endure culture. Where the task is, however, 
to make avail of some natural peculiarity which promises to 
be useful, but is not yet of economic value, it may require a 
hundred generations of careful selection to develop and fix 
desirable features. We are, however, in all cases sure in 



230 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

these half-animate species, the plants, that they will prove 
perfectly obedient to our will. It is otherwise, however, with 
wild animals. Here we have to deal with intelligences in 
which the most striking characteristic is an abiding fear of 
the master, and a general indisposition to submit to any other 
control than that of their native wild instincts. The measure 
in which this wilderness habit, bred of long contention ^'. ith 
enemies, prevails in animals varies greatly. Some, as for 
instance the elephant, at once reconcile themselves to human 
association, and directly on being made slaves accept the 
mastery of their captors. Others, such as the zebra, remain 
for a lifetime possessed of their original savage nature. A 
large part of the labor which has been given to the work of 
domesticating by the breeder's art the score of mammalian 
species which man has won to his use has been devoted to 
this task of expelling the wilderness motives from these forms. 
The cases in which he has failed to accomplish this end are 
those in which the savage humor has persisted for so long a 
time that he has been forced to abandon his effort to subdue 
the stock. 

It seems likely that at the present time we have acquired 
from the wilderness nearly all the animals which are capable 
of adoption by such brief and individual experiments as have 
won to us the species which constitute our flocks and herds. 
Our future gains will have to be made by far more deliberate 
and continuous endeavors. These tasks of the hereafter will 
have to be undertaken in away which will insure a continuity 
of effort such as can only be attained by permanently organ- 
ized associations which may continue their essays if needs be 
for centuries. The work should be clone with two distinct 
ends in view : first, to determine what members of the wilder- 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 231 

ness life may be made to contribute to the needs of man ; 
and, second, how far it is possible so to develop the intelli- 
oence of the lower animals in oreneral as to make them 
better fitted for companionship with our kind. This last- 
named line of experiments needs to be undertaken not 
only with reference to varieties now wild, but also upon 
our most domesticated forms, for, as before remarked, we 
have not begun to explore the possibilities of intellectual 
o-ain, even in those species which have been the longest 
associated with us. 

In considerinor a list of the creatures which mieht well 
be made the subjects of trial with a view to their domestica- 
tion, we find ourselves at once embarrassed by the exceeding 
wealth of our opportunities. It is impossible within the 
limits of this article to treat, even in the catalogue way, a 
vast number of forms which commend themselves for ex- 
periment. Something of the richness of the field, however, 
may be judged by noting some of the more conspicuous 
forms, as we shall now proceed to do. Beginning with the 
insects, the lowest forms in the animal series which have 
proved in any sense domesticable, we note that wide as is 
this realm of life it offers but few opportunities such as the 
domesticator seeks. Of the million or more species in the 
group, only two, the honey-bee and the silkworm, have been 
won to man's use, and there is not another wild form which 
the naturalist can suggest as likely to prove a valuable cap- 
tive. The only use which we are probably to find for these 
creatures is where, by some form of culture, we may induce 
predatory or parasitic species more effectively to do their 
destructive Avork on noxious forms of the class. So well 
fitted is this group for purposes of self-defence that however 



232 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

much man may Interfere with the course of nature, he is not 
likely to sweep any of their multitudinous kinds from the 
earth, though experience clearly shows that by the methods 
above mentioned they may be greatly reduced. 

It is amonof the vertebrate forms alone that we find 
animals which by their characteristics of body or of mind 
are well fitted to have an economic or social value. There 
alone are the qualities of flesh or of the external covering 
such as to make them in a high measure valuable, and the 
instincts of a nature to fit them for association in man's 
work. Even among these back-boned animals we find that 
the lower groups — the fishes, the amphibians, and the rep- 
tiles — promise little in the way of gains as compared with 
the higher groups, the birds and mammals ; yet even among 
these inferior creatures we find certain forms which give 
promise of improvement under the care of man. Some of 
the fishes readily learn to come to any one from whom they 
may expect food, and they indicate in other ways that they 
are capable of a certain intellectual advance. The frogs and 
toads readily learn to recognize a master. Several of the 
larger members of the first-named forms could advanta- 
geously be bred so as to be very useful as food. The com- 
mon hop toad of our gardens is an admirable helper in 
restraining the excessive development of certain slugs and 
insects. The tortoises and turtles contain a number of spe- 
cies which are edible, and many of the forms invite the 
breeder's care. It is, however, when we ascend in the type 
of vertebrates to the level of the birds that we find the 
great array of creatures which are worth considering as 
members of our civilization. 

Nearly all the birds except those of prey and those which 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 233 

haunt the seas can easily be accustomed to man. A few of 
these species which have been reduced to captivit)- have not 
become sufficiently reconciled to the unnatural conditions 
to maintain their breeding- habits. Even in these cases, how- 
ever, it seems likely that in spacious aviaries, at least in 
climates to which they are accustomed, it will be possible 
to secure the continuous reproduction of the kind, on which 
all development by the breeder's art depends. 

The ease with which most birds, except those of prey, 
may be reduced to domestication is due to the remarkable 
intensity of their sympathetic motives. In this regard the 
class is much more advanced than that of the mammalia 
to which we ourselves belong. Accustomed as they are to 
ceaseless and active intercourse with each other by means 
of their varied calls, largely endowed with the faculty of a:tten- 
tion, and provided with fairly retentive memories, the birds 
are, on the average, nearer in the qualities of their intelli- 
g'ence to man than are many of the species in his own 
class. It was lona- aoo remarked that the birds of remote 
islands, such as the Galapagos, which had never seen man, 
were at first not in the least afraid of him. It required, how- 
ever, but a few generations of experience to show these creat- 
ures that the unfeathered biped was a singularly dangerous 
animal, and they at once and permanently adopted the habit 
of avoiding him. This incident of itself shows how quick 
birds are to learn certain large and important lessons. We 
see also the reverse of this education in fear in the rapid way 
in which birds become tame when they are secured from per- 
secution. Wherever shooting is stopped over a considerable 
territory the birds rapidly become more tolerant of man's 
presence. Even among migratory species the individuals 



234 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

appear to learn that certain places where they are protected 
may be resorted to with safety. 

Because of their freedom of flight it is in all cases difhcult 
to bring our perching birds into such relations with the dom- 
iciles of man that they can be truly domesticated. The suc- 
cess, however, which has been attained in the case of the 
pigeons, which have been so far made captive by the change 
of their instincts that they never depart far from their cotes, 
seems to indicate that this tendency again to go wild is by no 
means ineradicable. In other instances it will probably dis- 
appear as it has in this by long-continued care in breeding. 
Our successes with the eeese, ducks, and swans, all of which 
belong to genera characterized by the migratory habit, show 
how readily in the course of time the old native instincts may 
be subordinated to the will of man. Although the degree of 
the difficulty which will be encountered in taming many wild 
forms may be far greater than that which has been met in 
those which we have domesticated, there is no reason what- 
ever to believe that in any case it will be insuperable. 

While all the creatures of the wilderness may by the 
breeder's art be induced to vary in the conditions of captivity, 
the birds have shown themselves more plastic in our hands 
than any other animals. In almost every brood we find indi- 
viduals possessing marked peculiarities of form or plumage. 
In their mental qualities also there is a like range of varia- 
tion. Seizing upon these, the fancier can guide the quick 
succeeding generations so as to cause the form to depart in 
the course of a few years very far from its original aspect. 
With each step in this succession of changes the readiness 
with which the species responds to selective care increases. 
The results which have been attained in our barnyard fowl 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 235 

and with the pigeons show how admirably these creatures are 
fitted to obey the will of man when he has a mind to take 
charge of their destiny. 

Perhaps the greatest conquests which we have yet to make 
among the birds will be won from the species which have the 
habit of dwelling mainly or altogether upon the ground. 
These, as experience shows, can be more readily brought to 
the uses of man than the species which are free by their 
stronc^ wines to wander throuo^h the realms of air. There 
are very many of these ground birds the domestication of 
which has never been fairly essayed. There are perhaps a 
hundred species which in one part of the world or another 
might afford valuable additions to our resources, those of 
ornament or of economy, and yet within three centuries only 
one of these, the turkey, has been brought to the domesticated 
state. The greater part of our game birds, such as the quail, 
pheasants, and partridges, though they appear on slight ex- 
periments to be untamable, could probably by continuous 
effort be reduced to perfect domestication. For ages they 
have been harried by man in a manner which has insured a 
great fear of his presence. We have indeed through our 
hunting instituted a very thorough-going and continuous 
system of selection which has tended to affirm in these creat- 
ures an intense fear of our kind. Only the more timorous 
have escaped us, and year after year we proceed to remove 
with the gun the individuals which by chance are born with 
any considerable share of the primitive tolerance of man's pres- 
ence. It is not to be expected that the chicks of these species 
will at once accept relations with our kind. The domestica- 
tion of many of these forms is to be desired, not only on 
account of the excellent quality of their flesh, but because of 



236 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

their beauty and the charm which their quick intelHgences 
afford them. Whoever has watched them in their care of 
their young or their other social habits has observed features 
which indicate a possible development under domestication 
perhaps greater than that which we have attained in any 
other of our feathered captives. 

It seems most important that experiments in the further 
domestication of birds should be first addressed to certain 
larofe gfround forms which are now in more or less dansfer of 
extinction. The newly instituted industry of ostrich farming 
has probably insured this the noblest remnant of the old 
avian life from destruction ; but the emu and the cassowary 
are still among the diminishing and endangered forms which 
unless taken into the human fold are likely soon to pass away. 
The brush turkey and the bower bird of Australia, two of the 
most curious inhabitants of that realm of strange life, appear 
to have qualities of mind and body which would make them 
readily domesticable and which would cause them to be 
among the most interesting of our feathered captives. 

Among the aquatic birds there are many species which are 
as promising subjects for domestication as any which have 
been made captive ; these if subjugated would prove great 
additions to our resources of ornament and use. Thus the 
eider duck, so well known for its wonderful soft down which 
is plucked from the breast to make a covering for the eggs, 
though a marine species, would prove domesticable at least 
on the seashore of high latitudes. There are many other 
varieties of the family, such as the canvas-back which is so 
highly esteemed for its flesh, that would likewise afford very 
interesting subjects for experiment. 

The wading birds are characteristically very wild and range 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 237 

over a wide field ; yet the flamingoes, the herons, and their 
kindred could probably be brought into at least as near 
an approach to reconciliation with man as their relations 
the storks. The comfortable relations which have been 
established between the last-named species and humankind 
in northern Europe is probably in nowise due to the pecul- 
iarly tamable nature of the bird, but rather to the fact 
that certain superstitious fancies on the part of the feather- 
less biped led him to protect the feathered visitor of his 
roofs and chimneys. Should it be desirable to break up 
the habit of migration in these or other birds which are 
now accustomed to range up and down the meridians, there 
seems no reason to doubt that the chana^e could be accom- 
plished with the same ease that it has been in the case of 
the tamed geese and swans. Experience has shown that 
with these forms, which probably have not been associated 
with men for more than three or four thousand years, the 
migratory instinct, which appears one of the strongest of 
motives, has utterly disappeared. Not only do they no 
longer heed the cries of the wild birds of their kind as they 
fly away on their annual journeys, but they have, through 
the changes in form induced by their quiet life, lost the 
power to rise far above the earth. 1 hey are even more 
effectively tamed than are their captors. 

Owing to their singularly perfect protection against the 
cold, and also perhaps to the quickness of their wits, birds 
are more readily transferable from one clime to another 
than are any other animals. The feathered tenants of our 
barnyards are, except perhaps the aquatic species and the 
turkey, all from the tropical realm. Experiments with various 
other wild forms go to show that there are very many other 



238 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

tropical species which will prove to have an equal tolerance 
of high latitudes. If this be true we may fairly look to the 
domestication of the varied bird life of the equatorial regions 
for the enrichment of our northern lands. Even when it 
may not be desirable to bring these species to the state of 
complete subjugation they may be introduced on something 
like the terms which have been given and accepted in the case 
of the so-called English pheasant, which has brought to the 
high north of Britain and some parts of this country an 
element of grace which is afforded by no indigenous form 
of North America or Europe. There are hundreds of beau- 
tiful tropical species which await reconciliation with men ; 
they have that quality of sympathy which affords the nat- 
ural foundations for the contract, but this has in no case 
been availed of except when the creatures, in addition to 
their aesthetic charm, have possessed some economic value. 
There as elsewhere in the matter of domestication the com- 
mercial motive has controlled our action. 

In forming our societies as we are in time to do, account 
must be taken of the sympathetic value of its elements, 
reckoning among these the animals which the system brings 
in contact with men. Much of the culture which has served 
to lift our race above its ancient savagery has been derived 
from the influence of domesticated animals ; in proportion 
as these creatures have sympathetically responded to our 
care we have been thereby educated and our spiritual devel- 
opment advanced. So far as in our further choice of animals 
which are to be associated with ourselves we are guided 
by a desire to extend this work, we may well turn our 
attention towards the birds, for in that group we may find a 
greater number of species which have attained the physical 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 239 

beauty which attracts and the mental quaHties which may 
endear them to mankind. They can give us nothing that 
can ever come so close to us as the dog — ^the unique gift 
of the wilderness — but they may afford a host of forms to 
enrich our lives. 

The mammals, because they are, in qualities of body and 
mind, nearer to us than the members of any other class of 
animals, afford the most promising field from which to make 
selections for future domestication. In an economic sense 
it seems unlikely that any very great profit can be attained by 
the subjugation of any of the mammalian species which are 
still wild. Civilized people have been so long in contact with 
the life of all the continents, and have ever been so hungry 
for gain, that they have already essayed about every experi- 
ment in subjugating the larger wild beasts which appears 
to be very promising. Still there are certain cases where 
there have been no trials and others where the failure to 
tame particular species has been due to hindrances which 
systematic labor may possibly overcome. It will therefore 
be well to oflance at the arrav of the wild forms which 
afford some prospect of success in the hereafter, including 
under the title of successes those kinds which may contri- 
bute not only to immediately measurable wealth, but the 
sesthetic satisfactions as well. 

Beginning with the lowlier group of mammals we find 
in the base of the series the ornithorhynchus and its allies, 
creatures which have nothing to recommend them but their 
exceeding organic peculiarities that render them attractive 
to the naturalist, but which are not likely to wnn them a 
place in the affections of men in general. As these species 
are most inoffensive as well as interesting, and as they 



240 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

are now confined to a portion of Australia, they might well 
be made the subject of some human care which would stop 
short of domestication. They might be transplanted to 
other continents and thereby given a larger field for variation 
as well as a chance to exhibit their features in a wider field. 
Among the pouched mammals, especially in the species of 
kangaroo, there are forms which commend themselves as 
very fair subjects for taming. They are of considerable 
size, their flesh is palatable, and their hides useful for leather ; 
they breed rapidly, live on a poor herbage, and are, for wild 
animals of like strength, very inoffensive. Moreover, though 
relatively invariable both in mind and body, they exhibit 
sufficient individual peculiarities to indicate that the breeder's 
art could, in a short time, bring about considerable changes 
such as have been effected in other species, changes that 
would increase the value of these animals. As far as 
aesthetic or sympathetic relations are concerned, the pouched 
mammals have nothing to give us ; they are, as befits their 
lowly estate, among the least graceful of their class ; they 
are also little interesting in their mental qualities, being 
about the stupidest of our kindred. 

Among the ordinary herbivorous mammals there are sev- 
eral which should be domesticable which have not yet been 
properly subjected to experiment looking to that end. The 
American bison, commonly but improperly termed the buf- 
falo, is a strong creature, one which is easily nourished. In 
its present condition, it is about as promising a subject for 
the breeder's care as were the ancestors of our horned cattle. 
Although there have been sundry trials of this animal as a 
beast of burthen, they have been of a rude as well as a brief 
kind, no care having been taken by selection to improve 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 241 

the qualities which evidently commend themselves to our 
use. The flesh of this species is quite as good as that of 
the wild bulls of the genus Bos, and the hides have a peculiar 
value on account of their somewhat woolly character. There 
is reason to believe that, bred in the region of the high 
north, about Lake Saskatchewan for instance, with proper 
selection this hairy covering could be developed much as 
has the wool on the sheep. This is indicated by the con- 
siderable variations in the quality of the coat which go to 
show that the feature is still in a very plastic state, a state 
that may be said to invite the assistance of man in order 
to bring it to the full measure of its possibilities. If this 
covering could be developed, the result would be to give 
us a domesticated beast of large size with a hairy covering 
havinor the character of a fur ; such would be a o-reat addition 
to our resources. 

As there is a large extent of country in the high latitudes 
of North America, Asia, and South America, where the 
climate is too severe and the herbage too scanty to serve 
the needs of our ordinary cattle, in which a hardy feeder 
with a well-clad body such as the buffalo might do well, it 
seems most desirable to essay the experiment of domesticat- 
ing the bison before it is too late, before the brutal instincts 
of our kind have quite made an end of the noblest animal 
which is native in the Americas. 

There is another inhabitant of the high north of this 
continent which deserves the notice of those who are dis- 
posed to attend to the questions concerning the extension 
of man's control over nature ; this is the ovibos or musk-ox. 
Like the buffalo, only in much higher measure, 'this singular 

creature is fit for very cold countries ; his fitness being in 
16 



242 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

part assured by his admirable covering of long hair as well 
as by his capacity for taking on fat during the short summer 
in sufficient store to last him throusfh the trials of the winter 
season. The kinship of the musk-ox to the group of the 
sheep is near enough to warrant the belief that the hair 
could be improved by selection, and that from the process 
we would be likely to obtain an animal much larger than 
our largest sheep and yielding fleeces of peculiar value in 
the arts. 

Among the northern carnivora there are several species 
which deserve attention for the reason that they may be 
brought to some degree of domestication which may enable 
us to make better use of their hairy coverings. Among 
these we may mention the foxes, the polar bears, and the 
seals. The first-named group affords at present about the 
dearest furs of our markets. The silver-gray variety, which 
at present seems to be a frequent individual variation, could 
doubtless be affirmed by selection, and probably could be 
brought to a higher state of perfection than it has as yet 
attained. The animals are, if we may judge from their 
kindred, not untamable ; at least they could be brought to 
live in a sufficient state of captivity to permit selection. In 
time they might be quite domesticated. Many of the islands 
of the high north and south are well fitted for such experi- 
ments. 

As is well known, the polar bears have a wonderfully 
developed hairy covering ; their coats, indeed, are among the 
richest that exist. These animals subsist mainly on what 
they capture from the sea, so that it might be possible to 
keep them at a small expense. They are, however, of all 
their kindred the most indomitable ; it would probably 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 243 

require a long and costly effort to reduce them to anything 
like domestication. Moreover, being strong, free swimmers, 
it would not be easy to maintain them in captivity. Still, 
selecting such a well-inundated place as Bear Island of the 
North Atlantic, it would be most interestino- to make the 
experiment, first of accustoming them to some human con- 
trol, and then to a selection which might serve to lift the 
quality of the kind. It would be less difificult and perhaps 
more advisable at first to make a trial of a similar 
sort with the black bear, which in less arctic conditions 
flourishes and carries a fine pelt. The only difificulty would 
be in finding a sufificient supply of food for such captives, for 
although they will eat fish they have no skill in capturing 
them such as is possessed by their more degraded, or perhaps 
we should say their less advanced kindred, the polar bears. 
Still, as the form is even more omnivorous than man, it might 
be practicable to feed them. 

By far the most important of the carnivora in an economic 
sense are the seals which dwell in the high northern waters. 
These creatures afford the most interesting subjects for 
experiments in domestication from an economic point of 
view that remain to be made. Of all the predatory animals 
the seals seem to have the largest share of intelligence and 
the greatest amount of sympathetic motives. No other wild 
animals, except perhaps the monkeys, appear to be so human- 
like in their qualities of mind as these creatures of the sea. So 
far, except when they have been captured and kept for purposes 
of show in menageries, man's relations to the seals have been 
purely destructive; he has incessantly hunted them. Yet 
certain species of them remain singularly willing, we may say 
desirous, of claiming friendship with their persecutors. As 



244 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

elsewhere noted, wounded seals behave in a curiously appeal- 
ing way towards their assailants. When in captivity certain 
of the species show a remarkable friendliness and a capacity 
to receive training. No other wild animals, except perhaps 
the elephants, exhibit so great a fitness for profiting from 
contact with man. 

Althouofh our knowledgfe as to the habits of seals is still 
very imperfect, it appears likely that the greater part of the 
species have the habit of resorting to certain places during the 
breeding season, and that the individuals after the manner of 
certain fishes return at that time to their native shore. If 
this be true, as there is good reason to believe it is, it should 
not be a matter of grave difficulty, provided the maritime 
nations would abet the experiment, to establish seal colo- 
nies composed of the several promising forms at fit points 
in the circumpolar seas. There is reason to suppose that 
with ordinary decent treatment the animals would become to 
a great degree accustomed to men, and that it might be pos- 
sible to accomplish selection enough of the individuals which 
were left to breed, to develop the already valuable character- 
istics of the fur. In the present disgraceful condition of our 
relations to these animals it will be but a few years before we 
shall have to lament the extirpation of several species, includ- 
ing the most interesting members of the group. 

Looking upon the questions of man's future on the earth 
in a large way, we see that there are reasons why the animals 
of the high north, particularly those which obtain their food 
from the sea, should be protected from extermination. There 
is a great area of country in that part of the world which is not 
adapted to the occupation of any of the species which have as 
yet been domesticated. If this portion of the world is ever 



THE PROBLEM OE DOMESTICATION 245 

to prove fruitful in other ways than through its mineral 
stores, it will be by the creatures which are adapted to its 
climate and other conditions. At the present rate of increase 
in numbers, the population of the world will, in the course of 
two or three centuries, begin seriously to press upon the 
resources in the way of food which the fields of the tropical 
and temperate zones can supply ; the chances of the arctic 
regions may then have much importance to our successors. 
Moreover, in the case of the seals we find the peculiar 
advantage that the animals are fed entirely from the sea, so 
that the domestication of these forms would Qrive to man a 
means, the like of which he has never possessed, whereby he 
would be enabled to harvest the food resources of the deep. 
The beaver, particularly the North American form, offers 
a most attractive opportunity for a great and far-reaching 
experiment in domestication. On this continent, at least, the 
creature exhibits a range of attractive qualities which is 
exceeded by none other in the whole range of the lower 
mammalian life. No other mammal below man shows any- 
thingf like the same constructive skill in the contrivance of its 
habitations, or is able so to modify its habits of building to 
meet the varied needs of its life. When this country was 
first visited by man near one half of its area was occupied 
by this species. It built its dams and dwelling-places and, 
when necessary, excavated its canals along all the lesser 
streams in the timbered regions of the northern districts. As 
the destructive effects of civilization increased, the animal has 
gradually, to a great extent, been driven away from its old 
haunts, and where it remains it has, as the price of life, given 
up its architectural habits and betaken itself to the older and 
simpler mode of living in a chance manner much as is now 



246 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

the habit of the European variety. As an iUustration of this 
I may note, in passing, that before the civil war, when all 
the recesses of the forests in the reeion about Richmond, 
Virginia, had for more than a century been industriously 
explored by hunters, the beaver was supposed to be extinct 
in the district ; yet during the civil war, as I am credibly 
informed, a colony of these creatures became established 
near the town of Suffolk, and there, amid the roar of a great 
conflict in which men ceased to seek the lesser game, they 
recovered their habit of building dams, which we must 
believe to have been discontinued for many generations. 
This capacity to vary action with reference to changing 
needs is the best possible index of the mental power of ani- 
mals. Guided by the exhibition that has been given us by 
the beavers, we are justified in considering them to be the 
one group of mammals which has gained a distinct, rational 
constructive power. This feature makes them decidedly 
the most interesting group for investigations which may 
be expected to throw light on the problems of animal 
intelligence. From the economic point of view the spe- 
cies has a certain importance for the reason that it affords 
one of the most valuable kinds of fur that has ever been 
marketed. 

The domestication of the beavers to the point where they 
would tolerate the presence of man should not, provided 
they could be protected against the depredations of poachers, 
be a matter of any difficulty. The colonies of these animals 
require only what is afforded by vast realms of our wilder- 
nesses — flowing streams of moderate fall with timber upon 
their banks. They are not particular as to the species, so 
that swift-growing kinds of trees such as the poplars may 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 247 

be made to serve their needs. The natural growth on a 
hundred acres of otherwise worthless land would probably 
be sufficient to maintain a colony of average size containing 
say twenty-five individuals. In the region about the great 
lakes and for some distance to the northward and to the 
east and west there are great areas amounting in the aggre- 
gate to some hundred thousand square miles that would 
apparently be well suited to the nurture of this form, and 
which in the present condition of the country, as well as for 
the immediate future, cannot be turned to better use. It may 
be remarked that the domestication of the beavers would 
afford yet another means, in addition to those above noted, 
whereby w^e might be able to win some profit from the great 
wilderness of the north, which is, so far as our existing means 
of appropriating its resources, of little use to mankind. The 
only evident way by which we may hope to win profit from 
this part of our continent is by using it as a field for rearing 
animals that have yet to be subjugated ; none of our captive 
varieties are fit for the service. 

In the tropical parts of the world there are many mam- 
malian species which are worthy subjects for essays in 
domestication. This is particularly the case in the continent 
of Africa where, except in the lands about the Mediterranean 
and the Red Sea, the native peoples have never attained the 
stage of culture in which men become strongly inclined to 
subjugate wild animals. Africa is richer in large herbivorous 
species than any other of the great lands ; many of these 
forms are of large size and have qualities of flesh, of hide, 
or other peculiar features which promise to make them 
valuable in an economic way. Others, especially the ante- 
lopes, have a beauty of form and a grace of movement which 



248 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

render them among the most attractive creatures of their 
class. Even the hippopotamus, one of the grossest beasts of 
this realm, affords in its teeth a valuable ivory, and its hides, 
if supplied in sufficient quantity, would probably find a 
considerable use. It is evident that in this "dark continent," 
where the influences which make for human advancement 
have been so slight, we have the best field for the selection 
of species that may hereafter be brought to the use of man. 
There is evidently danger, in the advance in the civilizing 
process, that the native forms which, owing to their fitness to 
the physical conditions of the country, might be made useful 
to its people, may be utterly destroyed by hunters. 

Perhaps the most interesting of the tropical beasts from 
the point of view which we occupy is the elephant. This ani- 
mal in its relations to men is eminently peculiar, in that while 
it has been in an individual way long and completely sub- 
jugated, it has never been systematically reared in captivity. 
Owing, it may be, to the slow growth of these great beasts, 
as well as to the immediate manner in which they submit to 
their captors, it has ever been the custom to take them when 
adult from the wilderness. The result is that the supply 
of the Asiatic species, which alone is serviceable — the African 
form being apparently too fierce for use — is now dependent 
on a relatively small number of wild herds. Certain of these 
herds are protected by the governments of India, but it 
seems as if the species were already dangerously near the 
vanishing point — in a position where the invasion of some 
disease or some insect enemy might deprive the world of what 
is, all things considered, the most interesting of the brutes. 
Moreover, the failure to rear elephants in captivity has made 
it impossible to essay any of those experiments in breeding 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 249 

which have done so much to improve the utihty and the 
beauty of most subjugated forms. 

If the elephants could be reared in captivity there is little 
reason to doubt that with a few centuries of selection they 
might be made to vary in many important ways. It is evident 
that the form and mental quality of these creatures is as 
plastic as those features in the other domesticated animals 
have been proved to be. Moreover, the group, though it is 
now represented by but two recognized species, was in com- 
paratively recent times quite rich in varieties, a fact which 
raises the presumption that the existing kinds are open to 
modification by the selective process. As the elephant 
is not mature until it is near thirty years old, probably 
not reproducing until about that age, there is little induce- 
ment for any person to undertake the process of breeding 
them in the selective way ; if the task is ever done it will 
have to be accomplished by government action or by that 
of a society which is pledged to such tasks. If the effort 
to bring the elephants into a more permanent relation with 
man is not made and the race is allowed to perish, we may 
be sure that in the time to come people will gravely censure 
us for any such neglect of the opportunities which this world 
affords as would be involved in the loss of this noble brute. 
It is clearly our duty to see that all such resources are pre- 
served for the inquirers of the future. 

Among the other tropical mammals which, because they 
have not as yet proved of economic value, are on account of 
their size and their attractiveness to sportsmen in danger 
of extinction, we may note the various species of rhinoceros, 
the giraffe, and the several African forms which are akin 
to the horse. None of these forms have been turned to use. 



250 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

none of them appear likely to be adopted by man for the 
service they can do ; but they are, in common with all the 
host which cannot be mentioned here, of great interest to 
the naturalists of our time. Their importance in the inquiries 
which are hereafter to be made by our ever expanding science 
of life cannot be estimated. It certainly will not be possible 
to overreckon it in this very practical age. This plea for the 
sparing of the mammalian species in no case needs to be 
made so strongly, and in no other instance is so well entitled 
to a hearing, as when it is raised for the life of the monkeys. 
These interesting animals because of their collateral kinship 
with man afford precious evidence as to the stages of intel- 
lectual development which is likely to be of exceeding value 
to students in that field of inquiry. There is unfortunately 
little chance that any of the monkeys will ever prove useful ; 
their habits are such that they are generally troublesome 
neighbors ; moreover, their weakness makes it easy to ex- 
terminate them. The result is that some species have prob- 
ably already been destroyed, and others are in conditions 
where during the next century they are likely to vanish. In 
the animate realm it is hard to choose the forms which are 
to be the most important for the naturalists of the time to 
come, but it is certain that these students will deplore the 
loss of the simian life and charge us sorely if we neglect due 
effort for its preservation. 

Although the matter before us concerns the domestica- 
tion of animals, it may be well to devote a little attention to 
the question of the wild plants which need protection or 
which promise to afford unwon values. It may be said that 
plants in general are much less likely than animals to be dis- 
turbed by the process of bringing a country under the condi- 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 251 

tions of civilization. With rare exceptions the individuals of 
each species are so numerous that, like the insects, they 
escape by their numbers the risk of the extinction of their 
kinds. Moreover, the ease with which nearly all the kinds 
can be brought under cultivation, and the fact that they 
present no self-will to be dominated, makes the task of deal- 
ing with them, in a protective way, infinitely easier than in 
the case of animals. So far as we know, there has not been 
an instance in which a continental species of plant has been 
exterminated by man, while there are a number of the 
larger animals which have been swept away apparently by 
human agency, and there are many more which are on the 
verge of extinction. Therefore, so far as the plant world is 
concerned, we may for the present at least trust the spe- 
cies to their own powers to maintain them against the rude 
assaults of civilization. If here and there one is overrun by the 
wheels of our economic engines, something of value to the 
student is lost, but the loss does not include the element 
of mind which is hereafter to be the subject of so much 
study. 

The foregoing considerations make it evident that the 
problem of domestication shades into the question as to the 
preservation of the life which is now on the earth, and this 
with a view to the advantage which the arts, the sciences, or 
general culture may obtain from the preservation of the use- 
ful, the instructive, and the beautiful things in the realm of 
nature from the swift destruction which our rude subjugation 
of the earth threatens to inflict. To deal with this problem 
in an adequate manner we must ask ourselves what limits are 
to be set to the displacement of the ancient order which is 
now going on. We see that wherever civilization enters, and 



252 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

even where its first influences are felt, the olden societies of 
nature are disturbed or broken up. All the nobler members 
of these associations, the greater mammals, many of the 
larger birds, and a host of the lesser forms, are expelled or 
destroyed. In the condition of organic life when the 
supremely predatory creature man rose to domination, the 
species were grouped in those vast organizations which were 
of old termed faunae and florae, but which are now better 
known as biological fields or provinces. In each of these 
hosts the several species were, as regards their external life, 
so balanced with their neio^hbors that the assemblao"e from 
the point of view of these relations might well be compared 
with the polities or states of man's construction. Such an 
organic society represents the result of a series of trials and 
balances which began to be made in the immeasurably remote 
past and have been continued through the geologic ages, 
each age adding something to the accord. The plants give 
and take from the animals ; the insects are equated with the 
birds, and each species in every group has set up an accord 
with its rivals. From time to time the host has by the 
changes of sea and land been compelled to migrate, moving 
this way and that to find its fit station. In these move- 
ments species are rapidly extinguished, much as the weaker 
soldiers of an army perish in forced marches. Into their 
places new forms hasten to take their place, so that every 
position of advantage is filled. At a less rapid rate, but 
perpetually, even without the change of abode, which it is 
often by climatic changes compelled to make, the organic 
host is slowly changing in character; old kinds give way in 
the endless contest to new varieties which have managed to 
establish a better relation to the environment. Still the 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 253 

legions press on towards the great accomplishment of a 
higher and nobler life. 

No one, however well he may conceive the nature and 
history of the organic hosts of the earth, can hope to convey 
to the general reader an adequate sense of their majesty or 
the wonderful part they have played in the history of the life 
which has culminated in mankind. The largest words are 
freighted with too little meaning, and even the metaphors 
drawn from human associations fail to convey a sufficient 
picture of these enduring organizations which have enabled 
living beings to meet the difficulties of their long contest 
with this rude world, and to win the advance they have 
gained. The reader will have to tax his imagination to pic- 
ture, it may be, a quarter of a million species dwelling in the 
same field, each united with the other in the method of 
exchange in such a way that the withdrawal of any one form 
is likely in some measure to change the estate of every 
other. In some cases this removal of one species means the 
loss of the life of many and perhaps the better opportunity of 
other neighbors; again, the influence on remoter members 
of the society may be so slight as to escape detection. Yet 
it is doubtful if the slightest change in the population of a 
biologic province can be brought about without some effect 
upon all the members of the society. It is a vast, sensitive 
thing, fit to be compared with the living body where every 
cell lives in accord with every other of the frame. 

So long as the organic hosts were in the prehuman stage 
the maintenance of the accord was easily and naturally 
attained. Species arose and perished, each in turn effecting a 
simple reconciliation with the others, grasping only so much 
room and food as was necessary for its proper support. But 



2 54 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

with the coming of man, the species which by its swiftly 
progressive desires has become a host in itself, a disturbing 
element was introduced into the old order. Man as a primi- 
tive savage falls into the natural system without greatly dis- 
turbing it ; but man as a soil-tiller, in so far as he carries out 
his subjugative work, utterly wrecks the ancient establish- 
ments of life. To attain his object he has to banish from the 
soil nearly all the plants which originally belonged upon it, 
and in their place, with or without intention, he introduces 
species from other organic provinces. With the change in 
plant-life necessarily goes a like, or even a greater, alteration 
in the native animals. They are driven into the wilderness 
or, it may be, extirpated. The reader who would obtain an 
idea of these changes will do well to study the invasions of 
weeds or of those noxious insects which in the economy of a 
civilized country may be likened to weeds. These pests are 
in nearly all cases invaders which owe their successes to the 
fact that our treatment of the regions they have entered has 
opened vacancies in the once closed ranks of the indigenous 
host, into which the foreigners are free to enter. In the 
fresh field they are not likely to find enemies which by long 
training are especially fitted to cope with them, and so they 
run riot and contest with man the gains he has won from the 
ancient possessors of the land. 

Of all the large questions which the consideration of the 
future of man's work on this planet opens to us, there is none 
which now appears to be more serious or, in its consequences, 
more far-reachingr than this concernincj the treatment which 
he is to orive to the old natural order of sea and land. The 
very first condition of civilization is an utter spoiling of that 
order, so far as the land areas are concerned, in the fields of 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 255 

the richest and highest life. It is clearly impossible to avoid 
this destruction over all the surface which we win to culture. 
Spare as we may, the subversion of the ancient balances and 
adjustments must be complete before the earth is ready for 
our tillage and other modes of use. This overturning is a 
part of the destiny of man. It is a characteristic of the new 
dispensation which came with his progressive desires. Yet 
the rational quality which has led to the mastery of man may 
be trusted to bring him to a point where he will endeavor to 
minimize the ill effects of his actions on the life which has 
been placed in his hands. 

In considering the ways in which we can mitigate the 
evils of our rule over organic nature, we at once see that our 
aim should be to preserve all the varieties of living creatures 
from destruction, provided they are not distinctly harmful 
to man, and this with the intention of keeping for our suc- 
cessors in the inheritance all that can in any way afford a 
foundation for further experiments in domestication, materi- 
als for learned inquiries, or pleasure in contemplation. To 
attain this object we cannot trust to the share of this life 
which can be brought into zoological and botanical gardens, 
however extensive and well managed. The only way is to 
make certain reservations in various parts of the world, each 
containing an area and a variety of conditions great enough 
to afford a safe lodgment for a true sample of the life of an 
organic province. Owing to the fact that these provinces are 
never sharply bounded, it would naturally be impossible to 
select reservations which would in a complete manner rep- 
resent all the conditions of the biologic societies ; but if 
properly distributed the outlying animals and plants could 
in most if not all cases be introduced into one or other of 



256 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

these protected fields, so that there would be little reason 
to fear that any important part of the existing life would 
be lost. 

Owing to the wise forethought of our American people, a 
practical foundation of the system of national reservations 
has been instituted in our so-called national parks. Although 
these reservations were established to preserve to the public 
certain natural beauties in the way of scenery or vegetation, 
or to secure the regimen of streams, they will, if properly 
guarded against depredations, effect the end which we have 
in view. Owing to their large area and somewhat varied 
positions, these parks provide a safe refuge for a great part of 
the life which belongs in the cordilleran district of the United 
States. If the method should be extended to the whole 
country, we should have the peculiar satisfaction of having 
been the first state to institute the system of preservation 
which is here suggested. 

To complete a system of reservations designed to per- 
petuate the aboriginal life of this country would require the 
institution of about a dozen other similar natural shelters. 
It would not be necessary to have these on as large a scale as 
that of the Yellowstone. In most cases areas of from ten to 
twenty thousand acres in extent would, if well guarded, suffice 
to give refuge to the animals and plants of the field in which 
it lay. The selection of these refuges would demand much 
consideration. In general, it may be said that they need to 
include at least two on the Atlantic coast, which might also 
be fitted for the use of marine birds as breeding places, one 
on the northern part of the coast of Maine, and another in 
southern Florida. The latter might serve as well for the 
protection of the turtles which resort to that shore to lay 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 257 

their eo-o-s. Similar coast parks should be established on the 
shores of the Pacific. Yet other closed areas would be needed 
in the interior, the evidently desirable fields lying in the 
region about the headwaters of the Mississippi, in the Adi- 
rondacks, in the mountains of North Carolina, in the lower 
part of the Mississippi delta, in Arizona, and at least two 
points in Alaska ; one of these should afford a place of refuge 
for the persecuted fur seals and another for the musk-ox. 

At first sight it may seem to be a simple matter to accom- 
modate the wild life of a country on a relatively small piece 
of land. So far, indeed, as the plants, the insects, and the 
lesser mammalian life are concerned, an area of a few hun- 
dred acres will serve very well for their safe harborage, but 
when it comes to protecting the larger birds and mammals we 
see how easily the natural balance of life is by some chance 
influence destroyed. A capital instance of this difficulty 
which arises when preservation is essayed on small areas has 
recently been forced on my attention. In Dukes County, 
Massachusetts, there is the vanishing remnant of an interest- 
ing bird known from the island to which it is limited as the 
Martha's Vineyard prairie chicken. It is closely related to 
its better known Western kinsman, yet is a distinct variety. 
Although the form has apparently developed on the island 
and once abounded there, it has dwindled in numbers until 
there are but few surviving. In the hope of providing a safe 
refuge for the remnant, I have for a number of years stopped 
all shooting on a tract of a thousand or two acres which is 
well fitted to supply them with food and shelter. As they 
still dwindled, it seemed probable that the foxes were harming 
them. This appeared the more likely for the reason that the 
fox is not a native of the island, but was introduced a few 
17 



258 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

years ago by some reckless experimenters. These marauders 
were cleared away without good results. Further inquiry 
made it apparent that the real enemy of these birds was the 
feralized domestic cat which has gone wild from the house- 
holds, especially from the many homesteads that have been 
abandoned. This creature has bred in great numbers and is 
now threatening the existence of all birds that rear their 
broods upon the ground. It is hardly possible to exterminate 
them, for the reason that they are wary, and any systematic 
hunting of them would prove exceedingly disturbing to the 
very timid birds. The result is that nearly all these birds have 
left my land for certain plains near by which are covered with 
scrub oaks and where there is too little ground life to attract 
the cats. In that region, though it has an area of about 
thirty thousand acres, the food is scanty ; the prairie chickens 
dwelling there are likely to perish for lack of the rose-hips 
which, in the hill country they have been forced to desert, 
served to maintain them at times when the ground was cov- 
ered with snow. 

The lesson which may be drawn from the experience 
above stated is to the effect that it is necessary to have a pro- 
tected field of sufficient area, and in the proper conditions 
to keep the balance of life which arises from the exchange 
of relations between species in their normal state. Even 
in ideal reservations where all invasions are excluded, we 
should have to expect that from time to time certain forms 
would disappear, their place perhaps being taken by new 
species which would arise. Such is the manner of the great 
procession of life. Probably at least twenty and perhaps a hun- 
dred times as many species as are now living on the earth have 
perished from it, and before the unimaginable goal is attained 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 259 

as many others may pass away. Our task with the refuges 
would be to keep the death of the specific inhabitants to the 
natural and wholesome rate that is determined by the endless 
struggle for existence. 

It is impracticable at the present time to devise a scheme 
for refuge stations in other countries than our own ; it is 
evident, however, that these would have to be numerous and 
widely distributed. A glance at a map showing the political 
distribution of the lands will make it evident, however, that 
within the holdings of the British, French, German, Dutch, 
and Russian governments there are large areas which might, 
without evident loss of considerable economic values, immedi- 
ate or prospective, be turned to such uses, and that these 
reservations would probably include nearly all that would 
be required to preserve the most important samples of the 
primitive life. Some of them, as for instance those intended 
to retain the large tropical animals in their natural state, 
would have to be as imperial in their areas as the Yellowstone 
Park, but these would lie in realms which have no present value 
to our own race and are scantily inhabited by the indigenous 
peoples. 

It is easy to see that the proposed world-wide system of 
wilderness stations in which the native life should be preserved 
from the destructive influences of man's assault upon it could 
not be brought about without international cooperation and 
with a considerable expenditure of money both for the founda- 
tion and maintenance of the establishments ; but, as before 
remarked, the idea of public reservations of this nature is one 
which immediately and strongly commended itself to the people 
of this country and has led their representatives to set aside for 
such use lands which in the aggregate amount to a larger area 



2 6o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

than some of our sister states. The same motive is seen in 
the action of the State of Massachusetts, which a few years ago 
created a Board of Trustees of PubHc Reservations, a cor- 
porate body authorized to hold in perpetuity lands which are 
intended to serve the public for pleasure and instruction. 
The recent rapid extension of the park systems appertaining 
to the cities of this country and Europe is a further illustra- 
tion of the same motive which makes for the object which 
we desire. It therefore seems not unreasonable to hope that 
very soon we may find the governments of the greater nations 
willing to go forward on the line of advance in which our own 
has so well led the way. At the right time the United vStates 
could probably do much to further the matter by asking for 
international action in this admirable work. There is hardly 
any undertaking which would afford a fairer chance for friendly 
cooperation among the great states than this which looks 
forward to the good of the time to come. 

While looking forward to the establishment of a system 
of sanctuaries which may serve to protect examples of the 
present life of all the lands, it is also well to consider what can 
be done by local authorities and by individuals in the same 
direction. The numerous zoological and botanical gardens 
which have been established in different parts of the world 
have in part the same motive that is to be embodied in the 
larger institutions which we would see founded ; they seek to 
preserve the interesting and instructive animals and plants, 
and in some cases contrive to perpetuate the kinds. The 
trouble is that their main purpose is to make a striking show, 
one that will attract the eye and lead to profit of an immedi- 
ate kind. If these institutions could be persuaded to add to 
their former exhibitions grounds designed for the maintenance 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 261 

M the natural order, true wildernesses, where the native life 
would find a fit place of abode and where it would be pro- 
tected from the ravages of man or from accident, a certain 

ain would be made ; at least the masses of our city people, 

10 have now come to control legislation in the great states, 

>> >uld be brought to see the beauties of the primitive con- 

•ions which they now rarely have a chance to behold. Yet 

re might be accomplished if men of wealth could be in- 

' Liced to turn their generous spirit towards this object. There 

many parts of this country where reservations are most 

d<.-^fj aJDle and where the price of land is so low that an area of 

thif thousand acres could be acquired for that number of 

dol. .irs. A capital of one hundred thousand dollars would, 

the present rates of interest, afford the revenue necessary for 

he puy of a keeper and half a dozen guards, a sufificient force 
-o maintain a due watchfulness against depredations. More- 
over, the use of such land as an asylum would not prevent a 
careful exploitation of its timber resources, which in many 
cases would give a suf^cient return to provide for the polic- 
ing expenses, as well as for incidental costs incurred in bring- 
ing upon the land species from the neighboring country which 
it might be desirable to introduce. At a cost of not more 
than a million dollars it would be possible to secure and 
maintain a well-chosen system of guarded wildernesses which 
would preserve the characteristics of the original plant and 
animal life in all the region of this country lying to the east 
of the Rocky Mountains. 

It would be essential in any such privately founded system 
of wilderness reservations to have the control of the establish- 
ments in the hands of some authorities which were of an 
enduring nature. In our American experience it has become 



262 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

certain that such trusts cannot be safely reposed in the 
state or national governments, or in the hands of trustees 
chosen for the particular function. The only authorities 
which commend themselves for the execution of such a pur- 
pose are those of our universities. In these institutions we 
find boards which are chosen for the attainment of intel- 
lectual ends ; in certain cases the choice is made by the vote 
of an intelligent body of alumni, or in other ways guarded by 
that body, so that the chance of lapse in the quality of the 
contract is reduced to a minimum. Several instances could 
be given showing that such trusts, even when they do not 
directly pertain to the teaching work of these institutions, 
have been long and faithfully maintained. We may there- 
fore look upon our universities as the natural repositories oi 
confidences which pertain to the continuous intellectual work 
of man. There is no other kind of association where inter- 
ests of the sort which would have to be cared for in the 
reservations of the wilderness are so likely to receive contin- 
uous attention. In these homes of learning, while business 
considerations enter, personal greed is naturally absent. 

The method which may be chosen for the control of 
wilderness reservations, though a problem of much impor- 
tance, is of course secondary to the matter of their establish- 
ment. This work should at once command the attention of 
those persons who are of the foresightful class who see beyond 
the interests of the day, and take account of the needs of the 
generations to come. Such men will do well to begin the 
work by organizing a society which shall endeavor to arouse 
public attention to the destructive effects of man's occu- 
pation of the earth by his civilizations. The people need, 
to be tauoht the true meaning of the indigenous life in 



THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 26 



o 



relation to the problems of the origin and destiny of our own 
and other life, to the future exercise of the domesticating art 
and to the most refined gratifications. 

It may be noted that, beginning with the apparently 
simple and eminently popular questions as to the origin and 
economic history of the animals which have been subjugated 
by man, we have been naturally led to the consideration of 
much larger problems, those relating to the place of man in 
the order of nature, and his duty by the life of which he is an 
integral part. There can be no question that the sense of 
this duty which mastery of the earth gives or should afford 
is to be one of the moral gifts of modern learning. So long 
as men considered themselves to be accidents on the earth, 
imposed upon it by the will of a Supreme Being, but in nowise 
related in origin and history to the creatures amid which they 
dwelt, it was natural that they should exercise a careless and 
despotic power over their subjects. Now that it has been 
made perfectly clear that we have come forth from the maze 
of the lower life, that all these tenants of the wilderness are 
sharers in the order which has brought us to our estate, and 
that each one of them, plant and animal alike, is the record of 
the impulses which lead beings upward, we can no longer 
keep the old careless attitude. We are compelled to deal with 
the organic hosts as we deal with the creatures of our folds 
and fields. We have to look upon them all as a member of 
the great household of man, made such by the intellectual 
conquest of the world to which he has attained. We may 
trust the sense of this large duty to extend abroad under the 
influences which have developed it in the minds of a few men, 
or we may hasten its development by a propaganda such as is 
carried on by the societies for the prevention of cruelty to 



264 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

animals. If this latter course is taken the teaching should be 
on a higher plane than that which we have yet had from those 
generally admirable associations. Bad as is the ill treatment 
of domesticated animals, the suppression of that evil will not 
bring us materially nearer the true attitude that we need to 
assume in face of our responsibilities to the natural world. 
We need to see the greatness of the responsibility which has 
been imposed upon us by the action of the guiding power 
that has made us lords of the earth. 



INDEX 



Animals, rights of, 204. 

separation of city folk from, 

223. 
educability of, 227. 
Antelopes, 247. 

Aryan race, relation to domestication, 
152, 220. 
relation to rights of ani- 
mals, 208. 
Ass, 93. 

Bears, possible domestication of, 243. 
Beasts of burden, 103. 
Beaver, 246. 

habits of, 246. 
domestication of, 247. 
Bee (honey), 191. 

" in North America, 195. 
Big Bone Lick, Ky., 129. 
Birds, 152. 

free-flying species of, 182. 
tree species of, 182. 
vocal powers of, 183. 
aesthetic nature of, 187. 
conditions of domestication of, 233, 
" future domestication of, 235. 
Bison, 106. 

" domestication of, 241. 
Buffaloes, 105. 

African, 106. 
-Bulls, 105. 
Camels, origin of, 119. 



Camels, limited nature of, 120. 
" lessening value of, 124. 
Cattle (horned), value of, no. 

" variations of, 113. 
Cats, origin of domesticated forms of, 51. 
" their love of well-known places, 51. 
" compared with dogs, 52. 
" their return to wild state, 55. 
" no large species domesticated, 56. 
Cochineal, 201. 
Dogs, origin of, li. 

fossil species of, 15. 
" savage selection of, 17. 
" civilized conditions of, 18. 
" shepherd breed of, etc., 19. 
hunting varieties of, 25. 
intellectual qualities of, 29. 
evils of fancy breeding, 31. 
lack of constructive faculty, 40. 
modes of expression, 44. 
" effect on human sympathy, 48. 
" possible new varieties of, 50. 
Domestication, relation to culture, 2. 

" relation to sympatiiies, 4. 

" slow institution of, 7. 

" mainly by Aryan people, 

152. 
" problem of, 218. 

hap-hazard nature of, 225. 
" conditions of, 229. 

Domesticability, on what depending, 107. 



266 



INDEX 



Donkey, 93. 

" limited use of, 94. 
Elephants, native freedom of, 107. 
" origin of, 127. 

" ancient species of, 128. 

" present limitation of, 130. 

" use in war, 130. 

" domesticability of, 131. 

" intelligence of, 132. 

" possible improvement of, 137. 

" future care of species required 

for preservation, 249. 
Falconry, 184. 

Fishes, limits of domestication, 232. 
Fowls (barnyard), 153. 

mental qualities of, 154. 
" voices of, 155. 
" domesticaljility of, 156. 
" game variety of, 159. 
Giraffe, 249. 
Goats, 115. 

" limited relation to man, 116. 
" little variation of, 117. 
" limited intelligence of, 118. 
Guinea hen, 164. 
Hawking, 184. 

Horse, economic value to man, 57. 
" origin of, 58. 
" hoof of, 61. 

" field in which developed, 65. 
" domestication of, 66. 
" use in war, 67. 
" effect of mounted men on early 

peoples, 69. 
" future use in military campaigns, 

70. 
" value in agriculture, 74. 
" mental qualities of, 75. 
" ready variations of, 78. 



Horse, Norman variety of, 82. 

" geograpiiic varieties of, 83. 
" Arabian variety of, 85. 
" Indian ponies, 86. 
" care of, 87. 
" shoeing of, 91. 
" influence on man, 100. 
Hybrids, utility of, 96. 
Insects, 190. 

limited value to man, 190. 
Kangaroo, 240. 

Mammalia, value of class as source of 
domesticable animals, 149. 
future domestication of, 238. 
Mammals (tertiary), 150. 
Mammoth, 129. 
Man, his place in nature, i. 

sudden appearance of, 6. • 
as a destroyer, 229. 
Martha's Vineyard prairie chicken, 257. 
Milk, value of, as food, no. 
Monkeys, little use to man, 250. 
value for inquiry, 250. 
Mule, 95. 

limitations in use of, 95. 
only hybrid serviceable to man, 96. 
mental qualities of, 98. 
Musk ox, 241. 
Organic hosts, 253. 
Ostrich, 168. 

" possible improvement of, 108. 
Pack animals, 104. 
Parks, national, etc., 256. 
Pea-fowl, 162. 

habits of, 163. 
" intelligence of, 164. 
Pets, influence of, 223. 
Pig, origin of, 140. 
" value of flesli, 140. 



INDEX 



267 



Pig, progressive domestication of, 142. 
" intelligence of, 143, 148. 
" variations in habits of, 147. 
Pigeons, 175. 

" origin of, 176. 
breeds of, 177. 
" mental qualities of, 180. 
Plants, danger of extinction of species of, 

250. 
Refuge stations. (See Reservations.) 
Reservations (of wilderness), 256. 
" American, 256. 

" foreign, 259. 

cost of, 261. 
Rhinoceros, 249. 
Rights of animals, 204. 

" " origin of, 205. 



Savages, relation of, to animals, 219. 
Seals, possible domestication of, 243. 
vSheep, 115. 

value of wool, 115. 
variations of, 1 16. 
mental qualities of, 118. 
Silkworm, 197. 
Turkey, origin of, 165. 
" variations of, 166. 

mental qualities of, 167. 
Vivisection, 211. 
Water-birds, 169. 

" flight of, 169. 

" sympathetic quality, 171. 

Wildernesses, destruction of, 224. 

" reservations of, 256. 

Wool-bearing animals, 114. 



DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 

THEIR RELATION TO MAN AND THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF CIVILIZATION 

Bv NATHANIEL SOUTHOATE SHALER 

Dean of the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University 

WITH MANY ILT.USTRATKINS BY 

Ch. Herrmann Leon, Edwin Lord Weeks, C. Delort, and Ernest E. Thompson 
One Volume, Octavo, $2.50 

EVFRYBODY who knows Professor Shaler's remarkable talent for the 
huerestinc; explanation of Nature, and for science that is really 
nopula a'^.d ifot simply called so, can imagine how the author o 
-A^nects of the Earth," "Nature and Man in America, ' and ''Sea and 
.^.d^" will deal wkh the subject of our familiar domestic animals. 1 he 
hook which he nr publishes deals chiefly with the horse, the dog, the 
book wh ch ne now 1 domesticated birds, and it would be hard 

fi r. col ect^m. fuUer^ apt illustration, anecdote, ingenious clearing 
''' J HiffiritDO^nt and otherwise entertaining reading on a topic so full 
oFaUracdon Tt ^^ 1 b read with continual surprise at the breadth of its 
observation and the ingenuity and probability of the theories advanced 
^^^.e ilkiTatton of the book has been done by some master hands^ Delort 
of PaH^ the late famous artist in this field, drew the horses; Herrmann 
Leo^^the doS; Ernest E. Thompson, the Canadian ormthologist, the 

^^^HhrtiS;SS ^t:^^^l^^^^^^^ The do. T^ nors. 
Flocks and Herds, Domesticated Birds, Useful Insects, The Rights of 
Animals, The Problem of Domestication. 

ASPECTS OF THE EARTH 

^ rOPULAR ACCOUNT OF SOME FAMILIAR GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA 
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" The subjects are as interesting as the way in which they are treated, and the illustra- 
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found of peculiar value and significance. "-A^^«/ York Tribune. 



FROFESSOI^ SCALER'S WORKS T^/V 



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5^^ AND LAND 



FEATURES OF COASTS AND OCEANS, WITH 
SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE LIFE OF MAN 

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NATURE AND MAN IN AMERICA 

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For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, on receipt of the price by the publishers 

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